STREAM MORPHOLOGIC IMPACT OF AND RECOVERY FROM MAJOR FLOODING IN NORTH-CENTRAL NEVADA |
| |
| Authors: | Tom Myers Sherman Swanson |
| |
| Institution: | Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences , University of Nevada, Reno , Reno, Nevada 89512-0013 |
| |
| Abstract: | Major floods cause channel changes ranging from complete cross-sectional change to small fluctuations in pool area. We used stream cross-section data on 30 heavily grazed rangeland streams in north-central Nevada to assess changes over a climatically variable 14-year period. There was an insufficient range in ungulate damage to consider differences caused by grazing. Flooding with return intervals exceeding 50 years caused major change on approximately 25% of the surveyed streams regardless of initial stream type. One-quarter of the changed streams continued to experience cross-sectional change during a six- to eight-year period of low-to-normal flows. On these streams, upper banks either receded to expose a new, lower floodplain or flattened to a less vertical slope. On streams that did not change type, flooding substantially reduced pool area, which did not recover during the succeeding period, presumably because energy was insufficient to form pools. High flows flushed fine sediment from the streams that did not change type, but fines returned in six years of low flows. Stream classification did not usefully predict major changes, channel evolution after the change, or differences in the effect of flooding on pools among streams that did not change. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
