Dam removal is widely used as an approach for river restoration in the United States. The increase in dam removals—particularly large dams—and associated dam‐removal studies over the last few decades motivated a working group at the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis to review and synthesize available studies of dam removals and their findings. Based on dam removals thus far, some general conclusions have emerged: (1) physical responses are typically fast, with the rate of sediment erosion largely dependent on sediment characteristics and dam‐removal strategy; (2) ecological responses to dam removal differ among the affected upstream, downstream, and reservoir reaches; (3) dam removal tends to quickly reestablish connectivity, restoring the movement of material and organisms between upstream and downstream river reaches; (4) geographic context, river history, and land use significantly influence river restoration trajectories and recovery potential because they control broader physical and ecological processes and conditions; and (5) quantitative modeling capability is improving, particularly for physical and broad‐scale ecological effects, and gives managers information needed to understand and predict long‐term effects of dam removal on riverine ecosystems. Although these studies collectively enhance our understanding of how riverine ecosystems respond to dam removal, knowledge gaps remain because most studies have been short (< 5 years) and do not adequately represent the diversity of dam types, watershed conditions, and dam‐removal methods in the U.S.

The Chumstick basin opened as an extensional half‐graben prior to 51 Ma, and was subsequently modified by two episodes of tectonic partitioning of drainage prior to basin deformation. Initially, westward flowing fluvial systems formed a unified depositional system with the Swauk basin. Tectonic partitioning of drainage at 51–49 Ma and at 44–42 Ma was controlled by localized uplift on the Leavenworth (LFZ), Eagle Creek (ECFZ), and Entiat (EFZ) fault zones and led in each instance to the truncation of regional depositional systems, modification and reversal of paleoflow, and internal drainage. Relief on the LFZ at 51–49 Ma may be the result of isostatic uplift of the extensional footwall, producing the Swauk and Chumstick basins as a pair of west facing half grabens. The earliest convincing evidence for the onset of oblique slip in the region is at about 48 Ma (folding in the Swauk basin) or about 44–42 Ma (probable transpressive uplift at left‐stepping bends of the LFZ, development of a transtensional step‐over basin between the ECFZ and EFZ, horsetail splays in the ECFZ, and possible flower structures in the LFZ and ECFZ in the Chumstick basin). Each episode of tectonic partitioning was followed by proximal onlap and overtopping of fault zones, to reestablish regional flow systems. The Chumstick Formation was deformed by dextral transpression between 37–34 Ma, and is unconformably overlain by the Oligocene Wenatchee Formation. The Chumstick basin is an example of an extensional basin modified by subsequent strike‐slip tectonics, thus caution should be used in applying idealized basin models.

One of the desired outcomes of dam decommissioning and removal is the recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. To investigate this common objective, we synthesized information from empirical studies and ecological theory into conceptual models that depict key physical and biological links driving ecological responses to removing dams. We define models for three distinct spatial domains: upstream of the former reservoir, within the reservoir, and downstream of the removed dam. Emerging from these models are response trajectories that clarify potential pathways of ecological transitions in each domain. We illustrate that the responses are controlled by multiple causal pathways and feedback loops among physical and biological components of the ecosystem, creating recovery trajectories that are dynamic and nonlinear. In most cases, short-term effects are typically followed by longer-term responses that bring ecosystems to new and frequently predictable ecological condition, which may or may not be similar to what existed prior to impoundment.

Dams have been a fundamental part of the U.S. national agenda over the past two hundred years. Recently, however, dam removal has emerged as a strategy for addressing aging, obsolete infrastructure and more than 1,100 dams have been removed since the 1970s. However, only 130 of these removals had any ecological or geomorphic assessments, and fewer than half of those included before- and after-removal (BAR) studies. In addition, this growing, but limited collection of dam-removal studies is limited to distinct landscape settings. We conducted a meta-analysis to compare the landscape context of existing and removed dams and assessed the biophysical responses to dam removal for 63 BAR studies. The highest concentration of removed dams was in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, and most have been removed from 3rd and 4th order streams, in low-elevation (< 500 m) and low-slope (< 5%) watersheds that have small to moderate upstream watershed areas (10–1000 km2) with a low risk of habitat degradation. Many of the BAR-studied removals also have these characteristics, suggesting that our understanding of responses to dam removals is based on a limited range of landscape settings, which limits predictive capacity in other environmental settings. Biophysical responses to dam removal varied by landscape cluster, indicating that landscape features are likely to affect biophysical responses to dam removal. However, biophysical data were not equally distributed across variables or clusters, making it difficult to determine which landscape features have the strongest effect on dam-removal response. To address the inconsistencies across dam-removal studies, we provide suggestions for prioritizing and standardizing data collection associated with dam removal activities.

Seventeen box cores from Lake Superior were analyzed for total organic carbon (TOC), porosity, and 210Pb activity. The data were trsed to determine relationships among bulk scdimentation rates, TOC sedimentation rates, and TOC degradation rates with depth in the core. Results are compared with predictive eqllations for TOC sedimentation rates and degradation rates in the oceans and show some striking similarities bctwcen the behavior of TOC in Lake Superior and in hemipclagic and pelagic marine environments.