Multi-millennial Record of Erosion and Fires in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains, USA

Leigh, David S.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21527-3_8

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Nor did we expect the river sites to produce three of the four highest sediment yields. Leigh () showed that historical extractive logging and hillslope agriculture of a century ago led to deep sediment deposits on the ULTR floodplain and that the current river is actively cutting through those deposits. The high sediment concentrations and yields at the river sites appear to result less from current land use and more from the legacy effects of early forest conversion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The high sediment concentrations and yields at the river sites appear to result less from current land use and more from the legacy effects of early forest conversion. Relative rates of floodplain accretion and bank erosion vary along the channel network here (Leigh, ), so our data cannot resolve the origin of bank‐derived sediments. The second surprise was that sediment loads from the urban stream, Crawford Branch, were well below expectations based on the relationship with land cover and water yield observed in the other watersheds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Suspended sediment yield was a function of both water yield (which varied greatly among watersheds due to steep precipitation gradients) and the fraction of basin converted from forest. The river sites exhibited the highest suspended sediment concentrations and three of the four highest sediment yield values, suggesting that bank erosion of previously documented legacy sediment deposits in the river valleys (Leigh, ) is contributing to river sediment yields.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We evaluated scaling issues by monitoring three U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gage sites in the basin to see if specific conductivities, sediment concentrations, and sediment loads in these receiving waters were reflective of large‐scale basin land use or instead reflected legacies of past disturbance. Widespread erosion from land clearing, poor forestry, and hillslope agriculture in the 19th and early 20th Centuries deposited large amounts of sediment on the ULTR floodplains, and the ULTR and its major tributaries continue to erode this material from the riverbanks (Leigh, ). The three river sites all drain basins larger than 148 km 2 with greater than 76% forest cover.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Rural residences and small farms are concentrated in the valleys. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the region was logged and much of the land was converted to agriculture, but pastures and croplands on the steep slopes were subsequently abandoned and then reverted to forest (Gragson and Bolstad, ), but not before widespread erosion and valley sedimentation had occurred (Leigh, ). The region is now experiencing in‐migration and vacation home development driven from the surrounding megapolitan region (Kirk et al ., ; Gustafson et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Water Quality Signals from Rural Land Use and Exurbanization in a Mountain Landscape: What's Clear and What's Confounded?

Jackson

Bahn

Webster

2017

J American Water Resour Assoc

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In mountainous landscapes with high climatic and geomorphic variability, how do rural land uses and exurbanization alter hydrology and water quality? We evaluated effects of rural land use and exurbanization on streamflows, suspended sediment concentrations and loads, specific conductance, and summer water temperatures in 12 streams and rivers within the Upper Little Tennessee River basin in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Eleven streams featured low levels of development (>61% forest cover) but differed in land use patterning, basin size, annual precipitation, and watershed morphology. One urban stream, located within the largest town in the basin, provided the high development comparative endpoint. Even low levels of rural development and exurbanization were associated with substantial increases in suspended sediment concentrations, sediment loads, and summer stream temperature daily maxima and diurnal variation. Observed summer temperature increases were much larger than would be expected due to global climate change over the next century. Specific conductance was idiosyncratic among the smaller streams. These water quality changes were not accompanied by streamflow changes that were discernible amid the high natural variation in precipitation and geomorphology. The water quality findings suggest the need for applying the best management practices, including riparian buffers, to even low levels of rural development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Water Quality Signals from Rural Land Use and Exurbanization in a Mountain Landscape: What's Clear and What's Confounded?

Jackson

Bahn

Webster

2017

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Can small stream solute–land cover relationships predict river solute concentrations?

Webster

Jackson

Knoepp

et al. 2023

Hydrological Processes

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Most studies of land use effects on solute concentrations in streams have focused on smaller streams with watersheds dominated by a single land‐use type. Using land cover as a proxy for land use, the objective of this study was to determine whether the hydrologically‐driven response of solutes to land use in small streams could be scaled up to predict concentrations in larger receiving streams and rivers in the rural area of the Little Tennessee River basin. We measured concentrations of typically limiting nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus), abundant anions (chloride, sulfate), and base cations in 17 small streams and four larger river sites. In the small streams, total solute concentration was strongly related to land cover ‐‐ highest in streams with developed watersheds, lowest in streams with forested watersheds, and streams with agricultural watersheds were in between. In general, the best predictor of solute concentrations in the small streams was forest land cover. We then predicted solute concentrations for the river sites based on the solute‐‐land cover relationships of the small streams using multiple linear regressions. Results were mixed ‐‐ some of the predicted river concentrations were close to measured values, others were greater or less than measured concentrations. In general, river concentrations did not scale with land cover‐solute relationships found in small tributaries. Measured values of nitrogen solutes in the river sites were greater than predicted, perhaps due to the presence of waste water treatment plants. We attributed other differences between measured and predicted river concentrations to the heterogeneous geochemistry of this mountainous region. The combined complexity of hydrology, geochemistry, and human land‐use of this mountainous region make it difficult to scale up from small streams to larger river basins.

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Stratigraphic paleobiology

Holland,

Patzkowsky,

Loughney

2024

Paleobiology

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Stratigraphic paleobiology uses a modern understanding of the construction of the stratigraphic record—from beds to depositional sequences to sedimentary basins—to interpret patterns and guide sampling strategies in the fossil record. Over the past 25 years, its principles have been established primarily through forward numerical modeling, originally in shallow-marine systems and more recently in nonmarine systems. Predictions of these models have been tested through outcrop-scale and basin-scale field studies, which have also revealed new insights. At multi-basin and global scales, understanding the joint development of the biotic and sedimentary records has come largely from macrostratigraphy, the analysis of gap-bound packages of sedimentary rock. Here, we present recent advances in six major areas of stratigraphic paleobiology, including critical tests in the Po Plain of Italy, mass extinctions and recoveries, contrasts of shallow-marine and nonmarine systems, the interrelationships of habitats and stratigraphic architecture, large-scale stratigraphic architecture, and the assembly of regional ecosystems. We highlight the potential for future research that applies stratigraphic paleobiological concepts to studies of climate change, geochemistry, phylogenetics, and the large-scale structure of the fossil record. We conclude with the need for more stratigraphic thinking in paleobiology.

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Multi-millennial Record of Erosion and Fires in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains, USA

Cited by 7 publications

References 61 publications

Water Quality Signals from Rural Land Use and Exurbanization in a Mountain Landscape: What's Clear and What's Confounded?

Water Quality Signals from Rural Land Use and Exurbanization in a Mountain Landscape: What's Clear and What's Confounded?

Can small stream solute–land cover relationships predict river solute concentrations?

Stratigraphic paleobiology

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