Over 76,000 dams have been constructed on American rivers to provide services such as flood protection, water storage, hydroelectric power, and navigation. Although most dams continue to provide sufficient benefits to retain the structure, dam removal is becoming increasingly common. This study involved the construction of a dam removal database to analyze spatial and temporal trends in dam removal. The data included information on 417 cases of dismantled American dams, 153 with known rationales for removal. Database analysis indicated that the leading purposes for dismantling structures are safety concerns and interest in environmental restoration. There is substantial geographic variability in dam removal rationales, with California leading in razing dams for environmental purposes, and Wisconsin leading in economic and safety rationales. States with substantial removals tend to have programs that support and fund dam razing. Although removals for safety reasons have been increasing steadily in the past three decades, environmental removals made a rather dramatic and sudden entry into the dam removal arena in the 1990s. Analysis of spatial and temporal trends in dam razing are of particular significance given the likely increase in dam removals in the 21st Century.

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Abstract. We investigated the influence of channel migration and expansion on riparian plant species diversity along the lower Colorado River near the United States-Mexico border. Using repeat aerial photography in a GIS we identified and classed areas of low, moderate, and high disturbance frequency caused by channel expansion and migration. Replicate vegetation plots (12 m  12 m) were sampled in each of the three disturbance classes. One-way ANOVA was used to test for differences in species richness, species diversity (using the Shannon-Weiner Index) and overall percent ground cover of plants between the three disturbance classes. Regardless of disturbance class, plots were dominated by trees or shrubs, especially the non-native Tamarix ramosissima, as well as Pluchea sericea, Baccharis salicifolia and Salix goodingii. Clearly woody species constitute the great bulk of overall species richness, percent ground cover, and species diversity (H 0 ) in each disturbance group. No overall statistically significant differences were revealed among the disturbance groups for values of species richness, percent ground cover, or the Shannon-Wiener Index, though paired contrasts of means revealed that total percent ground cover on low disturbance plots was significantly higher than on moderately disturbed plots. Spatial and temporal variability in riparian diversity in the study area appears to hinge on factors other than disturbance frequency such as salt or drought stress. Alternately, our results could be interpreted as suggesting that in the presence of intensive flow regulation, disturbance plays a secondary role to ecological stresses, similar to that demonstrated by others. Intentional flood pulses are advocated as a restorative management strategy for improving plant productivity, management of exotic species (particularly T. ramosissima), and restoration of overall biodiversity.

A chronology of alluvial surfaces on piedmont slopes below the western Ajo Mountains, southern Arizona, has been obtained using cosmogenic 36Cl accumulation and AMS radiocarbon dating. The apparent 36Cl ages of individual boulders range from 520,000 to 13,000 yr, and the 14C ages of organic material in the two young terraces are 2750–2350 and 17,800 cal yr B.P. The sequence of36Cl ages is consistent with the apparent stratigraphic order, but groupings of similar ages for different surfaces appear to result from repeated reworking of older surfaces associated with the deposition of younger ones. The youngest surface gave a distribution of 36Cl ages about 30,000 yr older than the 14C and soil ages; however, this distribution had36Cl ages that overlapped with 36Cl ages from active channels and hillslopes. We attribute the older-than-expected exposure ages of sampled boulders to inheritance of 36Cl while residing near the surface during very slow erosion on the mountain front. Our results show that although cosmogenic nuclide accumulation can help establish chronologies for surfaces in piedmont settings, care must be used in evaluating the effects of complex exposure histories.

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