Responses of the Roanoke Bayhead Delta to variations in sea level rise and sediment supply during the Holocene and Anthropocene

Jalowska, Anna M.; Rodriguez, Antonio B.; McKee, Brent A.

doi:10.1016/j.ancene.2015.05.002

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Human activities, such as damming and land‐use changes within river basins, alter water discharge patterns and sediment supply to deltas, affecting their natural storage functions (Jalowska, Rodriguez, & McKee, ; Nittrouer & Viparelli, ; Yang, Milliman, Li, & Xu, ). For instance, impacts of dams can lead to a recession of deltaic wetlands and subsidence of the delta plains (Syvitski et al, ; Yang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentation patterns in the Selenga River delta under changing hydroclimatic conditions

Pietroń

Nittrouer

Chalov

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Selenga River delta (Russia) is a large (>600 km 2 ) fluvially dominated fresh water system that transfers water and sediment from an undammed drainage basin into Lake Baikal, a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site. Through sedimentation processes, the delta and its wetlands provide important environmental services, such as storage of sediment-bound pollutants (e.g., metals), thereby reducing their input to Lake Baikal. However, in the Selenga River delta and many other deltas of the world, there is a lack of knowledge regarding impacts of potential shifts in the flow regime (e.g., due to climate change and other anthropogenic impacts) on sedimentation processes, including sediment exchanges between deltaic channels and adjacent wetlands. This study uses field measurements of water velocities and sediment characteristics in the Selenga River delta, investigating conditions of moderate discharge, which have become more frequent over the past decades (at the expense of peak flows, Q > 1,350 m 3 s −1 ). The aims are to determine if the river system under moderate flow conditions is capable of supporting sediment export from the main distributary channels of the delta to the adjacent wetlands. The results show that most of the deposited sediment outside of the deltaic channels is characterized by a large proportion of silt and clay material (i.e., <63 μm). For example, floodplain lakes function as sinks of very fine sediment (e.g., 97% of sediment by weight < 63 μm).Additionally, bed material sediment is found to be transported outside of the channel margins during conditions of moderate and high water discharge conditions (Q ≥ 1,000 m 3 s −1 ). Submerged banks and marshlands located in the backwater zone of the delta accumulate sediment during such discharges, supporting wetland development. Thus, these regions likely sequester various metals bound to Selenga River sediment.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentation patterns in the Selenga River delta under changing hydroclimatic conditions

Pietroń

Nittrouer

Chalov

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Roanoke River was selected for this study as the history of natural and anthropogenic modifications to the system are well documented (Hupp et al, 2009;Schenk et al, 2010;Jalowska et al, 2015). The Roanoke River originates in the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and drains into the west end of Albemarle Sound at an average annual rate of 252 m 3 /s (Giese et al, 1979;Molina, 2002).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Northern Outer Banks barrier-island chain. Direct water exchange with the ocean has been minimal since the closing of a tidal inlet in 1833, and present exchange with the adjacent Pamlico Sound is possible only through narrow Croatan and Roanoke sounds (Jalowska et al, 2015). As a result, the salinity of Albemarle Sound is variable, being 5-15 ppt in the east, 0.5-5 ppt in the middle and < 0.5 ppt in the west, at the mouth of the Roanoke River (NOAA SEA Division, 1998).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over half of the world's largest river systems have been moderately to strongly impacted by dams (Nilsson et al, 2005), which often results in downstream sediment starvation, reducing further sediment delivery to the lowlands, deltas and estuaries (Meade et al, 1990;Kondolf, 1997;Vörösmarty et al, 2003;Syvitski and Milliman, 2007). Sediment retention in reservoirs has been linked to the deterioration of large deltaic systems, such as the Yangtze (Yang et al, 2011;Dai et al, 2013), Nile (Gu et al, 2011) and Mississippi rivers (Blum et al, 2009), and also small deltaic systems, such as the Roanoke River (Jalowska et al, 2015). Flow regulations eliminate the lowest and highest peaks from hydrographs, and limit overbank flows, decreasing connectivity between river channels and floodplains (Hupp, 2000;Hupp et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Tracing the sources, fate, and recycling of fine sediments across a river-delta interface

Jalowska

McKee

Laceby

et al. 2017

CATENA

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The arrival of European-style agriculture to North America and subsequent deforestation increased sediment loads to the affected coastal zones through an estimated tenfold increase in soil-erosion rates (Meade 1982). In the United States, sediments derived from land clearing by the first European settlers resulted in the rapid progradation of estuarine bayhead deltas in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland (Pasternack et al 2001) and the Roanoke River in North Carolina (Jalowska et al 2015). In North Carolina, late 20th century tree farming in the Newport River watershed led to rapid accretion in the associated estuary and eventual marsh progradation (Mattheus et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tidal erosion and upstream sediment trapping modulate records of land-use change in a formerly glaciated New England estuary

Shawler

Hein

Canuel

et al. 2019

Anthropocene Coasts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land clearing, river impoundments, and other human modifications to the upland landscape and within estuarine systems can drive coastal change at local to regional scales. However, as compared with mid-latitude coasts, the impacts of human modifications along sediment-starved formerly glaciated coastal landscapes are relatively understudied. To address this gap, we present a late-Holocene record of changing sediment accumulation rates and sediment sources from sediment cores collected across a tidal flat in the Merrimack River estuary (Mass., USA). We pair sedimentology, geochronology, bulk- and stable-isotope organic geochemistry, and hydrodynamic simulations with historical data to evaluate human and natural impacts on coastal sediment fluxes. During the 17th to 19th centuries, accumulation rates increased by an order of magnitude in the central tidal flat, likely in response to enhanced delivery of terrestrial sediment resulting from upland deforestation. However, the overall increase in accumulation (0.56–2.6 mm/year) within the estuary is subtle and spatially variable across the tidal flats because of coincident anthropogenic land clearing and dam building, upland sediment storage, and estuarine hydrodynamics. This study provides insight into the response of formerly glaciated fluvial-coastal systems to human modifications, and underscores the role of estuarine environmental conditions in modifying upland signals of land-use change.

show abstract

Responses of the Roanoke Bayhead Delta to variations in sea level rise and sediment supply during the Holocene and Anthropocene

Cited by 14 publications

References 48 publications

Sedimentation patterns in the Selenga River delta under changing hydroclimatic conditions

Sedimentation patterns in the Selenga River delta under changing hydroclimatic conditions

Tracing the sources, fate, and recycling of fine sediments across a river-delta interface

Tidal erosion and upstream sediment trapping modulate records of land-use change in a formerly glaciated New England estuary

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About