Organic Carbon Concentrations in Hyporheic Zone Sediments: A Tool for Measuring Stream Integrity

Stofleth, John M.; Shields, F. Douglas; Fox, Garey A.

doi:10.1061/40737(2004)416

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Retention rates for smaller organic particles were also low. The total carbon (assumed to be equal to total organic carbon because of the pH regime) of bed sediments averaged 0.13 ± 0.08% prior to rehabilitation, which was comparable to means of ~0.25% for relatively less disturbed streams in the same region (Stofleth et al 2004). …”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 94%

“…10). By 3 yr after rehabilitation, streambed carbon levels were not significantly http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art54/ different from those measured before rehabilitation (p < 0.05; Stofleth et al 2004). Palmer et al (2005) proposed five criteria with which to assess the success of a stream ecosystem restoration project: (1) the design should be based on a specified guiding image of a more dynamic, healthy river that could exist at the site; (2) the ecological condition must be measurably improved; (3) only minimal follow-up maintenance should be needed, i.e., the project should be self-sustaining; (4) no lasting harm should be inflicted on the ecosystem during construction; and (5) both pre and post assessment must be completed and the data made available to the public.…”

Section: Longer-term Failuresmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Rehabilitation of an Incised Stream Using Plant Materials: the Dominance of Geomorphic Processes

Shields¹,

Pezeshki²,

Wilson³

et al. 2008

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The restoration of potentially species-rich stream ecosystems in physically unstable environments is challenging, and few attempts have been evaluated scientifically. Restoration approaches that involve living and dead native vegetation are attractive economically and from an ecological standpoint. A 2-km reach of an incised, sand-bed stream in northern Mississippi was treated with large wood structures and willow plantings to trigger responses that would result in increasing similarity with a lightly degraded reference stream. Experimental approaches for stream bank and gully stabilization were also examined. Although the project was initially successful in producing improved aquatic habitat, after 4 yr it had failed to effectively address issues related to flashy watershed hydrology and physical instability manifest by erosion and sedimentation. The success of ecosystem rehabilitation was thus governed by landscape-scale hydrological and geomorphological processes.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Longer-term Failuresmentioning

confidence: 96%

Rehabilitation of an Incised Stream Using Plant Materials: the Dominance of Geomorphic Processes

Shields¹,

Pezeshki²,

Wilson³

et al. 2008

E&S

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“…4, but without data from the hyporheic zone, it is impossible to assess the effects on the hyporheos or subsurface processes. Another experimental study on woody debris reintroduction in sand-bed streams in northern Mississippi assessed carbon concentrations in hyporheic sediments before and after installation of wood structures into the stream channels but did not find any significant changes after 3 years (Stofleth, Shields & Fox, 2004). Similarly, although constructed riffles and steps were successful in inducing hyporheic water exchange in several agricultural and urban streams in southern Ontario, Canada, dissolved oxygen concentrations were rapidly depleted with depth (Kasahara & Hill, 2006a).…”

Section: Human Impacts On the Hyporheos And Potential Rehabilitation mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hyporheic rehabilitation in rivers: restoring vertical connectivity

Boulton¹

2007

Freshwater Biology

241

224

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1. The hyporheic zone below the channel and banks of many rivers where surface water and ground water exchanges plays a crucial functional role in the biogeochemical transformation of water, mediated by active microbial biofilms. This zone also harbours assemblages of invertebrates that graze biofilms, contribute to secondary production, and can alter the porosity of the hyporheic zone through their movement or burrowing activities. 2. Many human activities cause interstitial sedimentation or disrupt surface-groundwater hydrological linkages, impacting upon ecological processes in the hyporheic zone. However, strategies for river rehabilitation seldom explicitly consider the hyporheic zone or seek to restore lost vertical linkages with groundwater. Instead, restoration goals target surface, riparian or floodplain features even though current river ecosystem theory emphasises the three dimensions of hydrological connectivity. To guide effective, holistic river restoration, scientists and managers therefore need information on the mechanisms by which energy and material are transferred in the hyporheic zone and which ecosystem services are thus provided. 3. Other gaps in our understanding of hyporheic zone rehabilitation include recruitment processes of the hyporheos and the relative importance of groups of hyporheic invertebrates in rivers differing in substratum size, disturbance frequency and groundwater linkages. Carefully designed experiments that assess responses to hyporheic rehabilitation strategies will provide valuable data at varying scales (e.g. distribution of hyporheic habitat types at the reach scale) for management as well as providing insights into the mechanisms controlling hyporheic invertebrate assemblages and ecological processes. Fully successful river rehabilitation must include restoration of vertical linkages between the river and its shallow groundwater aquifers.

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“…The mass per unit mass concentrations of total C within this data set ranged from near detection limits (0.01%) to as much as 2%, but isolated values in the order of 10% were reported for different reaches of the same streams by Stofleth et al, (2004). Observations of stream-bed organic carbon (OC) concentration (mass percentage) reported by others vary roughly between 0.1% and 10% (Table 9), and some differences are likely owing to variation in analytical methods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Stream bed organic carbon and biotic integrity

Shields

Knight

Stofleth³

2008

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Allochthonous carbon is the basis of the detrital food web in low-order, warmwater stream ecosystems, and stream-bed sediments typically function as carbon reservoirs. Many of the same factors that govern carbon input and storage to streams (e.g. riparian vegetation, large wood, heterogeneous boundaries) have also been identified as key attributes of stream fish habitat.2. Effects of channel incision on sand-bed stream carbon reservoirs and indices of biological integrity (IBIs) based on fish collections were examined for four streams exhibiting a range of incisement in northern Mississippi. Observed mean C concentrations (mass percentage) ranged from 0:24 AE0:36% for a non-incised stream to only 0:01 AE 0:02% for a severely incised channel, and were not correlated with large wood (LW) density, perhaps because LW density at one site was elevated by a habitat rehabilitation project and at another site by accelerated inputs from incision-related riparian tree fall. Fish IBI was positively correlated with bed C (r ¼ 0:70; p ¼ 0:003), and IBIs for reference streams were more than 50% greater than those computed for the most severely degraded sites.3. More testing is needed to determine the efficacy of stream bed C as an indicator, but its importance to warmwater stream ecosystems, and the importance of covarying physical and hydrologic conditions seems evident.

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Organic Carbon Concentrations in Hyporheic Zone Sediments: A Tool for Measuring Stream Integrity

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Rehabilitation of an Incised Stream Using Plant Materials: the Dominance of Geomorphic Processes

Rehabilitation of an Incised Stream Using Plant Materials: the Dominance of Geomorphic Processes

Hyporheic rehabilitation in rivers: restoring vertical connectivity

Stream bed organic carbon and biotic integrity

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