Sedimentation

Abstract

Sedimentation is arguably the most important water-quality concern in the United States. Sediment trapping is cited frequently as a major function of riverine-forested wetlands, yet little is known about sedimcntation rates at the landscape scale in relation to site parameters, including woody vegetation type, elevation, velocity, and hydraulic connection to the river. Thc Coosawhatchie River in coastal South Carolina, a blackwater stream, is compared to the Cache River on the Mississippi alluvial plain in Arkansas, a brownwater stream (Hupp and Schening 1997). Sedimentation rates along each river were estimated at sites along transects perpendicular to the channel by measuring the amount of deposition over the major root system ofagedetermined trees. These rates were related in turn to vegetation type, ground surface elevation relative to adjacent channel, hydroperiod, flow velocity, and hydraulic connection to river water. Additionally, short-term rates of dcposition were estimated through the establishment of white, feldspar clay markers.

Parent Publication

• The Coosawhatchie Bottomland Ecosystem Study: A Report on the Development of a Reference Wetland

Citation

Hupp, Cliff R.; Schening, Michael R. 2000. Sedimentation. In: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-38. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. p. 14-16.