Sediment supply controls equilibrium channel geometry in gravel rivers.

ABSTRACT: In many gravel-bedded rivers, floods that fill the channel banks create just enough shear stress to move the median-sized gravel particles on the bed surface (D₅₀). Because this observation is common and is supported by theory, the coincidence of bankfull flow and the incipient motion of D₅₀ has become a commonly used assumption. However, not all natural gravel channels actually conform to this simple relationship; some channels maintain bankfull stresses far in excess of the critical stress required to initiate sediment transport. We use a database of >300 gravel-bedded rivers and >600 ¹⁰Be-derived erosion rates from across North America to explore the hypothesis that sediment supply drives the magnitude of bankfull shear stress relative to t

SUBMITTER: Pfeiffer AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5380060 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature