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Influence of Forest Density on Bedload Movement in a Small Mountain Stream

From the Proceedings of the 1977 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 15-16, 1977, Las Vegas, Nevada / In contrast to three ephemeral streams in the vicinity, Tony Bear Creek, a small perennial stream in the White Mountains of Arizona, showed strong relationships among parameters of hydraulic geometry. Distances between gravel bars and log steps showed an inverse relationship with gradient (r² = 0.95). Shape factor and width-depth ratio increased upstream (r² = 0.98 and 0.90, respectively), indicating depth decrease toward the headwaters. The longitudinal profile is concave, and small, infrequent channel bars suggest that sediment movement is small. In contrast to the ephemeral streams, Tony Bear Creek is thus judged to be in dynamic equilibrium. Proportion of log steps to total steps (gravel bars plus logs) was much smaller in Tony Bear Creek (about 16 %) than in five other mountain streams (about 50 %). While all other streams ran through dense forests, only 60% of Tony Bear Creek was in forest, of which 13% had been selectively cut. Thus, forest density determined the proportion of logs incorporated into the stream hydraulic system, which in turn affects bedload movement.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/301018
Date16 April 1977
CreatorsHeede, Burchard H.
ContributorsUSDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Tempe, Arizona
PublisherArizona-Nevada Academy of Science
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Proceedings
RightsCopyright ©, where appropriate, is held by the author.

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