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Abstract: Particles of fine sediment can clog interstitial pore spaces of coarser grained sediment in river beds and thereby impede the exchange of water, dissolved constituents, and particulate matter with consequent ecological impacts. The extent to which fine sediment reduces connectivity between the stream bed and overlying channel is a function, in part, of sediment residence time. Short residence times imply frequent exchange of matter and reduced impact of fine sediment on stream bed habitat, while long residence times indicate that with respect to fine sediment delivery, the stream bed is more isolated from the overlying channel. Here we present a novel technique to quantify the residence time of river bed sediment at various depths over annual and decadal timescales using the fallout radionuclides (FRNs) 7Be (t 1/2 =53days) and 210Pbex (t 1/2 =22.3years). We placed mesh cylinders filled with 7Be-free sediment into a stream bed to quantify the capture of 7Be-tagged particles in the absence of scour and fill. We also took cores to the depth of refusal in alluvial sediment in unregulated and regulated rivers in Vermont and New Hampshire. Sampled watershed areas ranged from 29 to 410km2, and core depths ranged from 19 to 77cm. The 210Pbex activity profiles of cores show that bed sediment is exchanged to the depth of refusal at decadal timescales. In contrast, 7Be activity profiles indicate that fine sediment infiltrating into the bed had residence times ranging from 4 to >300days in unregulated rivers. Cores from a regulated river are notably different—subsurface sediment residence times were always longer than in unregulated rivers at comparable depths, likely owing to restriction of bed mobilization and clogging of bed material by fine sediment. These results suggest that filtration can be an important component of bed material delivery to stream beds, but filtration does not deliver material as deeply into the bed as scour and fill. We find that fallout radionuclides provide direct measurements of time and depth scales of active exchange of particulate matter, which are key controls on hyporheic function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We demonstrate that alluvial channel response to regulation depends on the characteristic mode of sediment transport in a channel and, thus, for a channel in supply-transport equilibrium, on the caliber of sediment mantling the channel bed, as well as changes in characteristic water discharge and sediment load. We find that regulated, coarse gravel- and cobble-bed alluvial rivers dominated by bedload transport are predicted and observed to preserve the value of a dimensionless ratio of characteristic water discharge, channel slope, width, and size of sedimentary particles mantling the bed associated with the critical conditions required for the onset of significant sediment transport. The covariant geomorphic adjustment of such rivers to regulation is independent of the degree of sediment impoundment, although the nature and rate of changes in any specific characteristic appear to be sensitive to changes in sediment supply. In contrast, covariant geomorphic changes in sand- and fine gravel-bed alluvial rivers dominated by weak suspension transport are predicted and observed to be dependent on the degree of sediment impoundment and commensurate with the change in the sediment concentration of characteristic, formative flows. In both cases, specific geomorphic characteristics of alluvial rivers exhibit varied responses to regulation in different rivers, but across all rivers a systematic covariation in channel slope, width, and grain size is observed that, for a given mode of sediment transport, preserves a characteristic value of the Shields number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]