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

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Wethered, Adam S. Ralph, Timothy J. Smith, Hugh G. Fryirs, Kirstie A. Heijnis, Henk
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	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 ($^{137}$Cs) and excess lead-210 ($^{210}$Pb$_{ex}$), 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 $^{210}$Pb$_{ex}$ discriminated between the <63-μm fraction of topsoils from agricultural and forested land (mean ± standard error of $^{137}$Cs is 5.7 ± 1.1 Bq kg$^{−1}$ and of $^{210}$Pb$_{ex}$ is 76.2 ± 22.4 Bq kg$^{−1}$) and subsoils from channel banks and gullies ($^{137}$Cs = 1.5 ± 0.5 Bq kg$^{−1}$; $^{210}$Pb$_{ex}$ = 3.6 ± 2.4 Bq kg$^{−1}$). In-channel sediment was a mix of these two source types ($^{137}$Cs = 0.9 ± 0.3 Bq kg$^{−1}$; $^{210}$Pb$_{ex}$ = 18.8 ± 6.8 Bq kg$^{−1}$). FRN concentrations also declined significantly downstream. Mixing model results show topsoils account for 39 % (95 % confidence interval (CI) = 21–88 %) of fine in-channel sediment in the upper reaches, but this declines to 2 % (CI = 0–19 %) after 25 km, and thereafter, subsoils account for an estimated 100 % of fine sediment in the system. This rapid decrease in topsoil contributions coincides with a downstream change in hydrogeomorphic character, including large increases in channel cross-sectional area (∼20 to >200 m$^{2}$) 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.
Starting Page	2052
Ending Page	2066
Page Count	15
File Format	PDF
ISSN	14390108
Journal	Journal of Soils and Sediments
Volume Number	15
Issue Number	10
e-ISSN	16147480
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2015-07-24
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Downstream channel change Fallout radionuclides Sediment connectivity Sediment mixing Sediment tracing Soil Science & Conservation Environment Environmental Physics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Stratigraphy Earth-Surface Processes

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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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