Quantifying fluvial (dis)connectivity in an agricultural catchment using a geomorphic approach and sediment source tracing

Catchments subject to land clearance, soil tillage and grazing suffer legacy effects from altered sediment and hydrological regimes and from changes in sediment connectivity between hillslopes and channels. Sediment dynamics are routinely investigated using the fallout radionuclides (FRNs) caesium-137 (137Cs) and excess lead-210 (210Pbex), which provide information regarding sediment sources and fluvial processes if source types are differentiated with confidence. Downstream transport, mixing and dilution of FRN-labelled fine sediment can obliterate the tracer signal from sources with low initial concentrations, so geomorphic evidence for downstream changes in sediment source types, mixing and fluvial (dis)connectivity should be used with tracers to ascertain the degree of sediment source variation and dominant fluvial processes. We coupled sediment source tracing with a geomorphic assessment of downstream hydrological, morphological and sedimentological change to quantify key components of fluvial (dis)connectivity in Coolbaggie Creek, a major source of sediment to the Macquarie River, southeastern Australia. Cs and 210Pbex discriminated between the 200 m2) and unit stream power (5.4 to 1,382 W m−2), and evidence of greater subsoil and reworked sediment contributions from bank and gully erosion. Limited topsoil supply to the trunk stream suggests low catchment erosion rates and reduced connectivity between the catchment and the river. Enlargement and entrenchment of the trunk stream in the lower reaches have resulted in lateral channel–floodplain disconnection, while a sediment slug impedes longitudinal coarse sediment transfer. Hydrogeomorphic change and sediment source variations downstream explain the short-term sediment dynamics in this agricultural catchment, which has broader implications for understanding sediment transport processes and fluvial (dis)connectivity when interpreting sediment source and tracer data.