Abstract. To predict changes in sediment transport, it is essential to know whether transport is regulated mainly by changes in flow or by changes in grain size of sediment on the bed. In flows where changes in suspended sediment transport are regulated purely by changes in flow (grain size of bed sediment is constant), increases in flow strength cause increases in both concentration and grain size of sediment in suspension (because stronger flows are able to suspend more sediment and coarser grains). Under this constraint of constant grain size of bed sediment concentration and median diameter of suspended sediment are positively correlated. In contrast, where transport is regulated purely by changes in grain size of sediment on the bed, concentration and median diameter of suspended sediment are negatively correlated (because increasing the median diameter of the bed sediment causes the concentration to decrease while causing the median grain size in suspension to increase). Where both flow strength and grain size on the bed are free to vary, the relation between concentration and grain size in suspension can be used to quantify the importance of grain size regulation relative to flow regulation of sediment transport, a measure defined as a. To predict sediment transport in systems that are regulated dominantly by changes in grain size on the bed, it is more useful to measure sediment input events or changes in grain size on the bed than to measure changes in flow. More commonly, grain size of bed sediment may be secondary to flow in regulating transport but may, nevertheless, be important. The relative coarseness of bed sediment (/3) can be measured directly or, like a, can be calculated from measurements of concentration and grain size of suspended sediment.
Abstract. The Colorado River in Marble and Grand Canyons displays evidence of annual supply limitation with respect to sand both prior to [Topping et al., this issue] and after the closure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. Systematic changes in bed elevation and systematic coupled changes in suspended-sand concentration and grain size result from this supply limitation. During floods, sand supply limitation either causes or modifies a lag between the time of maximum discharge and the time of either maximum or minimum (depending on reach geometry) bed elevation. If, at a cross section where the bed aggrades with increasing flow, the maximum bed elevation is observed to lead the peak or the receding limb of a flood, then this observed response of the bed is due to sand supply limitation. Sand supply limitation also leads to the systematic evolution of sand grain size (both on the bed and in suspension) in the Colorado River. Sand input during a tributary flood travels down the Colorado River as an elongating sediment wave, with the finest sizes (because of their lower settling velocities) traveling the fastest. As the fine front of a sediment wave arrives at a given location, the bed fines and suspended-sand concentrations increase in response to the enhanced upstream supply of finer sand. Then, as the front of the sediment wave passes that location, the bed is winnowed and suspended-sand concentrations decrease in response to the depletion of the upstream supply of finer sand. The grain-size effects of depletion of the upstream sand supply are most obvious during periods of higher dam releases (e.g., the 1996 flood experiment and the 1997 test flow). Because of substantial changes in the grain-size distribution of the bed, stable relationships between the discharge of water and sand-transport rates (i.e., stable sand rating curves) are precluded. Sand budgets in a supply-limited river like the Colorado River can only be constructed through inclusion of the physical processes that couple changes in bed-sediment grain size to changes in sand-transport rates.
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