Temporal variations of large wood abundance and mobility in the Blanco River affected by the Chaitén volcanic eruption, southern Chile

Tonon, Alessia; Iroumé, Andrés; Picco, Lorenzo; Oss-Cazzador, Daniele; Lenzi, Mario Aristide

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2017.03.025

Cited by 29 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…By the 21st century, however, research on large wood in rivers and the ecology of disturbed landscapes had matured to the point that the eruptions of Chilean volcanoes (Chaiten in 2008 and Calbuco in 2015) prompted intensive research on large wood. This work by an international cadre of scientists has concentrated on channel segments of the Blanco (also known as Chaitén) and Rayas rivers in the Chaitén area, and the Blanco‐Este River which drains the northeastern flanks of Calbuco volcano (Umazano et al ., 2014; Valdebenito et al ., 2015; Ulloa et al ., 2015a, 2015b; Mohr et al ., 2017; Tonon et al ., 2017; Sanhueza et al ., 2019). The studies address a variety of questions concerning sources and fates of large wood affected by pyroclastic density currents (PDC), tephra fall, and post‐eruption runoff processes in rivers draining from these volcanoes.…”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on the history of research on large wood in rivers

Swanson

Gregory

Iroumé

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Dynamics and functions of large wood have become integral considerations in the science and management of river systems. Study of large wood in rivers took place as monitoring of fish response to wooden structures placed in rivers in the central United States in the early 20th century, but did not begin in earnest until the 1970s. Research has increased in intensity and thematic scope ever since. A wide range of factors has prompted these research efforts, including basic understanding of stream systems, protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, and environmental hazards in mountain environments. Research and management have adopted perspectives from ecology, geomorphology, and engineering, using observational, experimental, and modelling approaches. Important advances have been made where practical information needs converge with institutional and science leadership capacities to undertake multi‐pronged research programmes. Case studies include ecosystem research to inform regulations for forest management; storage and transport of large wood as a component in global carbon dynamics; and the role of wood transport in environmental hazards in mountain regions, including areas affected by severe landscape disturbances, such as volcanic eruptions. As the field of research has advanced, influences of large wood on river structures and processes have been merged with understanding of streamflow and sediment regimes, so river form and function are now viewed as involving the tripartite system of water, sediment, and wood. A growing community of researchers and river managers is extending understanding of large wood in rivers to climatic, forest, landform, and social contexts not previously investigated. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on the history of research on large wood in rivers

Swanson

Gregory

Iroumé

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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“…In‐channel storage of large wood varies strongly in the Rayas and Blanco rivers even 8 years after the eruption but is roughly equivalent to 10–15% of the biomass of undisturbed forests. Tonon et al () reported similarly high loads for the Blanco River, which we recalculated with bootstrapped wood volumes to 120 +11 / −45 m 3 ha −1 . Compared to the wood loads of 280–650 m 3 ha −1 (per unit channel area) in small catchments impacted by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Lisle, ), the loads in the Rayas and Blanco rivers are modest (30–150 m 3 ha −1 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We can estimate the fate of large wood using a transport model developed for British Columbian rainforests (Chen, Wei, & Scherer, ). Assuming transport rates of ~900 m yr −1 over stream lengths of 17 and 34 km for the Blanco and Rayas Rivers (Tonon et al, ), large wood could remain within the channels for a few decades with losses of 40–60% into CO 2 . The total fraction of stored wood is low, however, so that we regard the atmospheric contribution of decaying wood to be negligible over centennial timescales.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sediment yields in rivers overloaded by pyroclastic debris are among the highest reported worldwide (Korup, 2012;Pierson & Major, 2014;Pierson, Pringle, & Cameron, 2011). We know less about fluxes of large wood following large historic eruptions (Lisle, 1995;Tonon et al, 2017;Ulloa, Iroumé, Picco, et al, 2015). Forest soils with high concentrations of organic matter and large wood buried beneath thick sheets of pyroclastic deposits could equally well sequester carbon for centuries, if not millennia (Chaopricha & Marin-Spiotta, 2014), instead of being mobilized by landslide or river erosion following volcanic disturbance.…”

Section: 1002/2017gb005647mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pyroclastic Eruption Boosts Organic Carbon Fluxes Into Patagonian Fjords

Mohr

Korup

Ulloa

et al. 2017

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Fjords and old‐growth forests store large amounts of organic carbon. Yet the role of episodic disturbances, particularly volcanic eruptions, in mobilizing organic carbon in fjord landscapes covered by temperate rainforests remains poorly quantified. To this end, we estimated how much wood and soils were flushed to nearby fjords following the 2008 eruption of Chaitén volcano in south‐central Chile, where pyroclastic sediments covered >12 km2 of pristine temperate rainforest. Field‐based surveys of forest biomass, soil organic content, and dead wood transport reveal that the reworking of pyroclastic sediments delivered ~66,500 + 14,600/−14,500 tC of large wood to two rivers entering the nearby Patagonian fjords in less than a decade. A similar volume of wood remains in dead tree stands and buried beneath pyroclastic deposits (~79,900 + 21,100/−16,900 tC) or stored in active river channels (5,900–10,600 tC). We estimate that bank erosion mobilized ~132,300+21,700/−30,600 tC of floodplain forest soil. Eroded and reworked forest soils have been accreting on coastal river deltas at >5 mm yr−1 since the eruption. While much of the large wood is transported out of the fjord by long‐shore drift, the finer fraction from eroded forest soils is likely to be buried in the fjords. We conclude that the organic carbon fluxes boosted by rivers adjusting to high pyroclastic sediment loads may remain elevated for up to a decade and that Patagonian temperate rainforests disturbed by excessive loads of pyroclastic debris can be episodic short‐lived carbon sources.

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“…A riverine environment can be characterized by a substantial fluctuation in terms of LW load over time (i.e. Wohl, 2011; Dixon and Sear, 2014; Tonon et al ., 2017; Boivin et al ., 2017a), ascribable to the occurrence of floods, disturbances or forest stand age (Gurnell, 2013; Benda and Bigelow, 2014; Boivin et al ., 2017b; Mazzorana et al ., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large wood load fluctuations in an Andean basin

Picco

Scalari

Iroumé

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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The importance of monitoring and analysing wood fluxes in mountain environments is widely recognized. However, there is a lack of information related to the long‐term fluctuations in wood load and associated to the changes in large wood (LW) characteristics. The main aims of the research were to analyse (i) changes in wood characteristics, (ii) fluctuations in wood load, and (iii) the relationship between wood load and sub‐reach settings, proposing an ad hoc roughness index (RI). Repeated field surveys to measure wood load and LW characteristics during a 13‐year period were conducted within a 2.2 km‐long reach of the Rio Toro (Chile), which flows through the Malleco Forest National Reserve that was affected by wildfires in 2002 and 2015. Two spatial scales (i.e. study reach and sub‐reach) were considered. Irrespective of the adopted scale wood load fluctuated considerably, in both number and volume, with significant changes in LW characteristics (i.e. mean diameter and length). Moreover, a clear tendency to the aggregation in wood jams (WJs) was observed within the entire study reach. Based on our results, we conclude that 17 years after the first wildfire wood recruitment has started in the upper parts of the basin. Moreover, Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) analyses were carried out to investigate the relationship between RI and both number and volume of LW. Both models are characterized by high adjusted R2 of 74.9% and 72.8% for volume and number, respectively. This demonstrated that the RI can characterize the reaches in terms of tendency to deposition and trapping of wood. These results are promising, particularly in improving the knowledge related to potential deposition areas that can control wood load fluctuations, also permitting its management to be improved. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Temporal variations of large wood abundance and mobility in the Blanco River affected by the Chaitén volcanic eruption, southern Chile

Cited by 29 publications

References 69 publications

Reflections on the history of research on large wood in rivers

Reflections on the history of research on large wood in rivers

Pyroclastic Eruption Boosts Organic Carbon Fluxes Into Patagonian Fjords

Large wood load fluctuations in an Andean basin

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