We evaluate correlations between stream geomorphic complexity and characteristics of the adjacent riparian forest, valley geometry, and land use history in forested subalpine streams of the Colorado Front Range. Measures of geomorphic complexity focus on cross-sectional, planform, and instream wood piece and logjam variables. We categorize adjacent riparian forests as old-growth unmanaged forest (OU), younger unmanaged forest (YU), and younger managed forest (YM), and valley geometry as laterally confined, partly confined, or unconfined. Significant differences in geomorphic stream complexity between OU, YU, and YM result primarily from differences in wood pieces and logjams, and these differences correlate strongly with pool volume and organic matter storage. Significant differences in planform and crosssectional complexity correlate more strongly with valley geometry, but do not explain as much of the observed variability in complexity between streams as do the wood variables. Unconfined OU streams have the largest wood loads and the greatest complexity, whereas legacy effects of logging, tie-drives, and channel simplification create lower complexity in YM streams, even relative to YU streams flowing through similarly aged forest. We find that management history of riparian forests exerts the strongest control on reduced functional stream channel complexity, regardless of riparian forest stand age. PUBLICATIONSbut this relationship has been difficult to demonstrate in the field [Palmer et al., 2010]. Although previous studies have related geomorphic complexity of floodplain and instream units to riparian plant species in natural watersheds [Harris, 1988] and watersheds disturbed by human activity [Hupp and Rinaldi, 2007;Gumiero et al., 2015], they do not evaluate such complexity in relation to variations in valley geometry and forest disturbance history. In this paper, we evaluate correlations between different measures of geomorphic complexity in small mountain streams of the Colorado Front Range and characteristics of the adjacent riparian forest, valley geometry, and land use history.Exchanges of water, sediment, and organic matter within and between terrestrial and stream environments influence physical and biological stream dynamics, as well as ecological food webs [Baxter et al., 2005], in turn influencing geomorphic complexity. In this context, riparian forest stand age can exert a particularly important indirect influence on channel complexity by serving as a control on the recruitment of large wood (10 cm diameter and 1 m length) to channels. Trees in old-growth forests (200 years stand age) are larger in diameter and thus greater in volume than trees in younger growth forests. Trees with greater diameter are less likely to be transported downstream in small streams due to the relative dimensions of wood pieces and channels [Braudrick et al.are thus retained close to where they fall in the stream [Lienkaemper and Swanson, 1986;Wohl and Jaeger, 2009] and have greater potential to trap mobile wood and fo...

Porosity, or void space, of large wood jams in stream systems has implications for estimating wood volumes and carbon storage, the impacts of jams on geomorphic and ecological processes, and instream habitat. Estimating porosity and jam dimensions (i.e. jam volume) in the field is a common method of measuring wood volume in jams. However, very few studies explicitly address the porosity values in jams, how porosity is calculated and assessed for accuracy, and the effect such estimates have on carbon and wood budgets in river corridors. We compare methods to estimate jam porosity and wood volume using field data from four different depositional environments in North America (jam types include small in-channel jams, large channel-margin jams, a large island apex jam, and a large coastal jam), and compare the results with previous studies. We find that visual estimates remain the most time-efficient method for porosity estimation in the field, although they appear to underpredict back-calculated porosity values; the accuracy of jam porosity, and thus wood volume, estimates are difficult to definitively measure. We also find that porosity appears to be scale invariant, dictated mostly by jam type, (which is influenced by depositional processes), rather than the size of the jam. Wood piece sorting and structural organization are likely the most influential properties on jam porosity, and these factors vary according to depositional environment. We provide a framework and conceptual model that uses these factors to demonstrate how modeled jam porosity values differ and give recommendations as a catalyst for future work on porosity of wood jams. We conclude that jam type and size and/or the study goals may dictate which porosity method is the most appropriate, and we call for greater transparency and reporting of porosity methods in future studies.

We demonstrate how land use can drive mountain streams in the Southern Rockies across a threshold to induce an alternative state of significantly reduced physical complexity of form and reduced ecological function. We evaluate field data from 28 stream reaches in relatively laterally unconfined valleys and unmanaged forest that is either old‐growth forest or naturally disturbed younger forest, and 19 stream reaches in managed forest with past land use. We evaluate potential differences in stream form, as reflected in channel planform, cross‐sectional geometry, and in‐stream wood loads, and stream function, as reflected in pool volume and storage of organic carbon. Field data indicate a threshold of differences in stream form and function between unmanaged and managed stream reaches, regardless of forest stand age, supporting our hypothesis that the legacy effects of past land use result in an alternative state of streams. Because physical complexity that increases stream retentiveness and habitat can maintain aquatic‐riparian ecosystem functions, the alternative physical state of streams in managed watersheds creates a physical template for an alternative ecological state with reduced pool volume, organic carbon storage, and ecosystem productivity. We recommend maintaining riparian forests that can supply large wood to streams as a stream restoration technique in historically forested stream segments. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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