[1] Understanding bed load transport fluctuations in rivers is crucial for development of a transport theory and for choosing a sampling interval for ''mean'' transport rates. Fieldscale studies lack sufficient resolution to statistically characterize these fluctuations, while laboratory experiments are limited in scale and hence cannot be directly compared to field cases. Here we use a natural-scale laboratory channel to examine bed load transport fluctuations in a heterogeneous gravel substrate under normal flow conditions. The novelty of our approach is the application of a geometrical/statistical formalism (called the multifractal formalism), which allows characterization of the ''roughness'' of the series (depicting the average strength of local abrupt fluctuations in the signal) and the ''intermittency'' (depicting the temporal heterogeneity of fluctuations of different strength). We document a rougher and more intermittent behavior in bed load sediment transport series at low-discharge conditions, transitioning to a smoother and less intermittent behavior at high-discharge conditions. We derive an expression for the dependence of the probability distribution of bed load sediment transport rates on sampling interval. Our findings are consistent with field observations demonstrating that mean bed load sediment transport rate decreases with sampling time at low-transport conditions and increases with sampling time at high-transport conditions. Simultaneous measurement of bed elevation suggests that the statistics of sediment transport fluctuations are related to the statistics of bed topography.

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We present a model of sedimentation in a subsiding fluvio-deltaic basin with steady sediment supply and unsteady base level. We demonstrate that mass transfer in a fluvio-deltaic basin is analogous to heat transfer in a generalized Stefan problem, where the basin's shoreline represents the phase front. We obtain a numerical solution to the governing equations for sediment transport and deposition in this system via an extension of a deforming-grid technique from the phase-change literature. Through modification of the heat-balance integral method, we also develop a semi-analytical solution, which agrees well with the numerical solution. We construct a space of dimensionless groups for the basin and perform a systematic exploration of this space to illustrate the influence of each group on the shoreline trajectory. Our model results suggest that all subsiding fluvio-deltaic basins exhibit a standard autoretreat shoreline trajectory in which a brief period of shoreline advance is followed by an extended period of shoreline retreat. Base-level cycling produces a shoreline response that varies relative to the autoretreat signal. Contrary to previous studies, we fail to observe either a strong phase shift between shoreline and base level or a pronounced attenuation of the amplitude of shoreline response as the frequency of base-level cycling decreases. However, the amplitude of shoreline response to base-level cycling is a function of the basin's age.

A field experiment was carried out to study the unsteady behavior of an instrumented full-scale 2.5 MW wind turbine under neutral conditions. The analysis focused on the structure of the instantaneous turbine power and strain at its foundation. A meteorological tower located 1.6 rotor diameters upstream of the turbine was used to characterize the turbulent flow. Mean velocity and temperature were steady during the 1 h period selected. The results suggest that the turbine power and foundation strain are modulated by atmospheric turbulence in a complex way. The spectral characteristics of both quantities exhibited three distinctive regions. Within the first region, defined by subrotor length scales, the turbine power was insensitive to the flow turbulence. In the intermediate region, with length scales up to those on the order of the atmospheric boundary layer thickness, the spectral contents of the power fluctuationsˆP and flowˆU exhibit a non-linear relationship of the formˆP D G.f /ˆU , where G.f / / . /f 2 is a transfer/damping function. In the third region, dominated by the very large scales of motions, the power fluctuations are found to be directly influenced by the flow. The strain also showed three regions, similar to the power fluctuations. However, it follows the structure of the inertial subrange of the turbulence at subrotor scales. Intermittent gusts were able to induce intermittent behavior on the turbine power. Finally, the flow and power correlation showed that the velocity at the hub height is the best descriptor of the flow turbulence within the rotor area.

Cover: Impact plate array for measuring bedload transport in the Erlenbach stream, Switzerland (upstream view of the sediment retention basin, with plates visible in the left side of the curved check dam crest, and (inset) water falling into an automatically driven basket-type bedload sampler). Geophone sensors are mounted underneath the steel plates at the crest of the check dam. The movable bedload-collection basket provides calibration data for the acoustic data produced by the impact plates. See figures 12 and 13. Photographs courtesy of Dieter Rickenmann, Swiss Federal Research Institute. For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit Bedload-Surrogate Monitoring Technologies

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Fundamental to interpreting the stratigraphic architecture within a basin is understanding the relationship between a basin's external conditions and its stratigraphic response. Here we present a model of fluvial basin filling that is based on two field observations. Firstly, natural fluvial systems commonly have an upstream region dominated by gravel transport and a downstream region dominated by sand transport with the transition between the two being relatively abrupt. Second, gravel bed and sand bed systems operate at nearly constant but different mean Shields stresses. Our model is based on a single, linear diffusion equation but is unique in that we use distinct transport (diffusion) coefficients for the two dominant fluvial regimes: a proximal gravel region and a distal sand region. This problem is complicated by the existence of two moving boundaries: the position of the distal fluvial toe and the position of the gravel-sand transition. We present a rigorous numerical treatment of both of these moving boundaries and verify our numerical formulation by comparing the model results to a semianalytical solution technique.We use the model to examine the stratigraphic response to perturbations in four external boundary conditions: sediment supply, water supply, rate of subsidence and gravel fraction. The response is analysed in terms of the phase relation between forcing and the position of the gravel front, the position of the fluvial toe, proximal accumulation rate and distal accumulation rate. The model supports the results of earlier single-diffusion models suggesting that the form of the response is dependent on the period of the perturbation relative to the intrinsic basin response time. For forcing periods less than the intrinsic basin response time, basin response is nearly constant and independent of the forcing period, suggesting that the transport system controls basin response. For forcing periods greater than the intrinsic response time of the basin the response time of the basin increases directly with the forcing period, suggesting that the transport system plays no role in limiting basin response. For gravel-sand systems we show that the intrinsic response time is a function of the ratio of gravel to sand entering the basin. Forcing of the above external boundaries, both slowly and rapidly relative to the basin response time, produces both distal and proximal unconformities. We present a nondimensional 'unconformity number' that constrains the amplitude and period of forcing necessary to generate proximal unconformities. These external (allogenic) forcings are communicated to Correspondence: J. G. Marr, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, of external forcing is spatial variation in sediment grain Mississippi River at 3rd Ave. SE, University of Minnesota, size, which is easily observed at the outcrop scale and Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA.