Journal Articles

2008

Reengineering of stream channels is a common approach used to restore hydrologic function in degraded landscapes, but there has been little published research analyzing its effectiveness. A key challenge for impact assessment is disentangling the effects of restoration from climate variability. Trout Creek, near Lake Tahoe, California, was reengineered to reestablish hydrologic connectivity between the stream and its former floodplain. Gauges located above and below the site, along with groundwater well measurements, were used to analyze prerestoration and postrestoration hydrology.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

To improve basin-scale modeling of ground water discharge by evapotranspiration (ET) in relation to water table depth, daily ET was measured using the Bowen ratio energy balance method during 1999–2005 in five herbaceous plant dominated wetlands in an arid intermountain basin in Colorado, USA. Three wetlands were wet meadows supplied primarily by regional ground water flow and two were playas supplied primarily by local stream flow.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

This report summarizes the methods, results and conclusions of the investigation at Clark’s Meadow to determine the subsurface conditions and potential water storage capabilities of meadow sediments. The partially restored nature of Clark’s Meadow offered a unique opportunity to observe the consequences of uncheck stream erosion in the lower half of the meadow against restored conditions in the northern half of the meadow.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

Stream restoration efforts, particularly within meadow systems, increasingly rely on 'pond and plug' type methods in which (a) alluvial materials are excavated from the floodplain, forming ponds; (b) excavated alluvial materials are used to plug incised channels and (c) smaller dimension channels are restored to the floodplain surface. A commonly stated objective of these efforts is to restore ecologically significant hydrological processes to degraded riparian systems. However, little research has been conducted to evaluate and quantify the restoration of these hydrological processes.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

Stream restoration efforts, particularly within meadow systems, increasingly rely on ‘pond and plug’ type methods in which (a) alluvial materials are excavated from the floodplain, forming ponds; (b) excavated alluvial materials are used to plug incised channels and (c) smaller dimension channels are restored to the floodplain surface. A commonly stated objective of these efforts is to restore ecologically significant hydrological processes to degraded riparian systems. However, little research has been conducted to evaluate and quantify the restoration of these hydrological processes.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

2007

The baseflow of tributaries to the Velhas River in the northwest region of Ouro Preto County (São Francisco Basin, Brazil) has been declining in the last years, without a simultaneous decrease in the water input. This can only be attributed to badly planned human activities, which result in soil crusting or compaction, erosion, among other types of impact, such as groundwater overexploitation and wetland drainage. Almost all of the study area has been eroded by hundreds of large-size gullies.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

Although public and financial support for stream restoration projects is increasing, long-term monitoring and reporting of project successes and failures are limited. We present the initial results of a long-term monitoring program for the Lower Red River Meadow Restoration Project in north-central Idaho, U.S.A. We evaluate a natural channel design’s effectiveness in shifting a degraded stream ecosystem onto a path of ecological recovery. Field monitoring and hydrodynamic modeling are used to quantify post-restoration changes in 17 physical and biological performance indicators.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

A channel restoration utilized the pond and plug technique along several river reaches in the Last Chance Creek sub-watershed in Feather River Basin, California, during 2002–2004, in order to rehabilitate the floodplain functions such as mitigating floods, retaining groundwater and removing excessive levels of sediment, and to significantly alter the hydrologic regime. This paper describes an integrated approach to modeling flow and sediment transport in the connected stream-aquifer system to quantify the influence of the river restoration activities.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

Stream incision is altering the hydroecology of riparian areas worldwide. In the Last Chance watershed in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, logging, overgrazing, and road/railroad construction have caused stream incision, which resulted in drainage of riparian meadow sediments and a succession from native wet meadow vegetation to sagebrush and dryland grasses. Restoration efforts have been initiated to reestablish the ecosystem function of these systems.

Resource Type: Journal Articles

2006

Woody plant encroachment into semiarid ecosystems has become a global trend in recent decades. Due to stream channel incision, the semiarid riparian montane meadows of the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, USA are experiencing long-term declines in soil moisture. A woody shrub, Artemisia rothrockii A. Gray (Rothrock sagebrush, Asteraceae) is invading these herbaceous meadows. We used an analysis of the stable oxygen isotope ratios of plant and soil water to measure the depth of plant water acquisition during the early stages of this woody plant encroachment.

Resource Type: Journal Articles