Evaluation of a Fine Sediment Removal Tool in Spring-fed and Snowmelt Driven Streams

Sepulveda, Adam J.; Layhee, Megan J.; Sutphin, Zachary A.; Sechrist, Juddson D.

doi:10.3368/er.33.3.303

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Other studies of gravel cleaning have recorded similar decreases in fine sediment content (e.g. Meyer et al 2008;Pulg et al 2013;Sepulveda et al 2015) and similar success has also been associated with gravel additions (Sarriquet et al 2007). However, despite the reduction in fines caused by jetting, the amount of subsurface sand in our study riffles on the River Great Ouse (17.7 %) remained above recommended levels; for example, they were above the 15 % threshold thought to detrimentally affect the early development of salmonid fishes (Kemp et al 2011;Kondolf 2000;O'Connor and Andrew 1998).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Analysis of surface grain-size distributions during both riffle and patch scale assessments indicated that gravel jetting had a significant impact on the composition of surface spawning gravels by displacing finer sediments, which resulted in coarser, better-sorted sediments (significantly increased percentiles, mean and sorting). In comparison, Sepulveda et al (2015) quantified fewer significant alterations in surface percentiles (D50, D84) as a function of gravel restoration via modified suction dredging in North America, with a decrease in surface particle sizes following restoration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, without quantitative evidence, these assertions are speculative but provide areas for future studies to explore. As an alternative, modified suction dredges could be used to remove rather than mobilise fine sediments from the river bed, avoiding potentially detrimental ecological impacts of jetting and fines mobilisation (Sepulveda et al 2015). Other, potentially more sustainable localised actions are also suggested, such as creation of off-channel settling reservoirs and buffer zones to protect river banks from erosion and livestock (Hendry et al 2003), but these typically influence ambient conditions across broad spatial scales, and can rarely be used to target localised issues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of gravel jetting on the composition of fish spawning substrates: Implications for river restoration and fisheries management

Bašić

Britton

Rice

et al. 2017

Ecological Engineering

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Fine sediments can impact river biota, with egg and larval stages of lithophilic fish particularly sensitive to deposition of sand-and clay-sized particles ('fines') in spawning gravels. Mitigation and restoration methods include jetting to cleanse gravels of fines. Despite wide application, impacts of jetting on gravel composition and quality have rarely been quantified. Here, gravel jetting impacts on sediment composition in the River Great Ouse (UK), were tested during an in-situ experiment completed at riffle (55.6 ± 13.4 m 2) and patch (0.3 m 2) scales to determine its magnitude and persistence on surface and subsurface substrate conditions. Before-after (riffle) and control-impact (patch) designs were used, with bedload sediment traps installed downstream of experimental patches to investigate the sediments mobilised during jetting. At the riffle scale, surface grain size was significantly altered; fines were removed resulting in coarser and better-sorted sediments. Similar patterns were detected at the patch scale, although sediment sorting was not significantly altered. Despite reduced fine sediment content of subsurface gravels at the riffle scale, the overall grain size composition was not significantly altered. At the patch scale, no subsurface improvements were detected. Temporally, at the riffle scale, no changes in surface or subsurface sediments lasted more than 12 months; patch scale changes generally persisted for less than 3 months. Thus, whilst gravel jetting could improve spawning gravel quality for surface spawning fishes, including European barbel Barbus barbus, its effects are short-term. However, because subsurface sediments are not affected by gravel jetting, the benefits are limited for redd-building fishes, such as salmonids. Consequently, reducing fine sediment delivery to rivers, such as by changes in agricultural practices, would be more sustainable for managing excessive river sedimentation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of gravel jetting on the composition of fish spawning substrates: Implications for river restoration and fisheries management

Bašić

Britton

Rice

et al. 2017

Ecological Engineering

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“…Restoration of subsurface conditions by removal of fine sediment to promote hyporheic exchange has been studied in the context of individual geomorphic features such as cross-vanes or steps (Herzog et al, 2015;Menichino, Ward, & Hester, 2014;Vaux, 1968;Ward et al, 2011). More recently, emerging technologies make reach-scale fine sediment removal a feasible restoration strategy to remediate sediment pollution of streambeds (Sepulveda, Layhee, Sutphin, & Sechrist, 2015;Sepulveda, Sechrist, & Marczak, 2014), which has been shown to allow deeper penetration of surface water into the stream bed (Merz, Setka, Pasternack, & Wheaton, 2004). Here, we assess the impact of fine sediment on reach-scale solute transport and transient storage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Streambed restoration to remove fine sediment alters reach‐scale transient storage in a low‐gradient fifth‐order river, Indiana, USA

Ward

Morgan

White

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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Hyporheic restoration is of increasing interest given the role of hyporheic zones in supporting ecosystem services and functions. Given the prevalence of sediment pollution to waterways, an emerging restoration technique involves the removal of sediment from the interstices of gravel‐bed streams. Here, we document streambed sediment removal following a large, accidental release of fine sediment into a gravel‐bed river. We use this as a natural experiment to assess the impact of fine sediment removal on reach‐scale measures of transient storage and to document the responses of reaches with contrasting morphology (restored vs. unrestored) to changing discharge one‐field season. We conducted a series of conservative solute tracer experiments in each reach, interpreting both summary statistics for the recovered in‐stream solute tracer time series. Additionally, we applied the transient storage model to interpret the results via model parameters, including a Monte Carlo analysis to measure parameter identifiability and sensitivity in each experiment. Despite the restoration effort resulting in an open matrix gravel bed in the restored reach, we did not find the significant differences in most time series metrics describing reach‐scale transport and transient storage. We hypothesize that this is due to enhanced vertical exchange with the gravel bed in the restored reach replacing lateral exchange with macrophyte beds in the unrestored reach, developing a conceptual model to explain our findings. Consequently, we found that the impact of reach‐scale removal of fine sediment is not measureable using reach‐scale solute tracer studies. We offer recommendations for future studies seeking to measure the impacts of stream restoration at the reach scale.

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“…These data were originally collected for other research objectives (e.g. Sepulveda et al 2015), so a limitation of using these data is an unbalanced study design. Only two streams were sampled annually for four years (2011-2014), while the remaining four streams were sampled for 1-3 years within this time period (Table 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial–aquatic linkages in spring-fed and snowmelt-dominated streams

Sepulveda

2017

Journal of Freshwater Ecology

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The importance of trophic linkages between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems is predicted to vary as a function of subsidy quantity and quality relative to in situ resources. To test this prediction, I used multi-year diet data from Bonneville cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarki Utah in spring-fed and snowmelt-driven streams in the high desert of western North America. I documented that trout in spring-fed streams consumed more (number and weight) aquatic than terrestrial invertebrates, while trout in snowmelt-driven streams consumed a similar number of both prey types but consumed more terrestrial than aquatic invertebrates by weight. Trout in spring-fed streams consumed more aquatic invertebrates than trout in snowmelt streams and trout consumed more terrestrial invertebrates in snowmelt than in spring-fed streams. Up to 93% of trout production in spring-fed streams and 60% in snowmelt streams was fueled by aquatic invertebrates, while the remainder of trout production in each stream type was from terrestrial production. I found that the biomass and occurrence of consumed terrestrial invertebrates were not related to our measures of in situ resource quality or quantity in either stream type. These empirical data highlight the importance of autotrophic-derived production to trout in xeric regions.

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Evaluation of a Fine Sediment Removal Tool in Spring-fed and Snowmelt Driven Streams

Cited by 5 publications

References 30 publications

Impacts of gravel jetting on the composition of fish spawning substrates: Implications for river restoration and fisheries management

Impacts of gravel jetting on the composition of fish spawning substrates: Implications for river restoration and fisheries management

Streambed restoration to remove fine sediment alters reach‐scale transient storage in a low‐gradient fifth‐order river, Indiana, USA

Terrestrial–aquatic linkages in spring-fed and snowmelt-dominated streams

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