TY - JOUR
T1 - The natural sediment regime in rivers
T2 - Broadening the foundation for ecosystem management
AU - Wohl, Ellen
AU - Bledsoe, Brian P.
AU - Jacobson, Robert B.
AU - POFF, LeRoy
AU - Rathburn, Sara L.
AU - Walters, David M.
AU - Wilcox, Andrew C.
N1 - cited By 23
PY - 2015/3/30
Y1 - 2015/3/30
N2 - Water and sediment inputs are fundamental drivers of river ecosystems, but river management tends to emphasize flow regime at the expense of sediment regime. In an effort to frame a more inclusive paradigm for river management, we discuss sediment inputs, transport, and storage within river systems; interactions among water, sediment, and valley context; and the need to broaden the natural flow regime concept. Explicitly incorporating sediment is challenging, because sediment is supplied, transported, and stored by nonlinear and episodic processes operating at different temporal and spatial scales than water and because sediment regimes have been highly altered by humans. Nevertheless, managing for a desired balance between sediment supply and transport capacity is not only tractable, given current geomorphic process knowledge, but also essential because of the importance of sediment regimes to aquatic and riparian ecosystems, the physical template of which depends onsediment-driven river structure and function
AB - Water and sediment inputs are fundamental drivers of river ecosystems, but river management tends to emphasize flow regime at the expense of sediment regime. In an effort to frame a more inclusive paradigm for river management, we discuss sediment inputs, transport, and storage within river systems; interactions among water, sediment, and valley context; and the need to broaden the natural flow regime concept. Explicitly incorporating sediment is challenging, because sediment is supplied, transported, and stored by nonlinear and episodic processes operating at different temporal and spatial scales than water and because sediment regimes have been highly altered by humans. Nevertheless, managing for a desired balance between sediment supply and transport capacity is not only tractable, given current geomorphic process knowledge, but also essential because of the importance of sediment regimes to aquatic and riparian ecosystems, the physical template of which depends onsediment-driven river structure and function
KW - adaptive management
KW - river restoration
KW - sediment
KW - sediment balance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84926680389&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/natural-sediment-regime-rivers-broadening-foundation-ecosystem-management
U2 - 10.1093/biosci/biv002
DO - 10.1093/biosci/biv002
M3 - Article
SN - 0006-3568
VL - 65
SP - 358
EP - 371
JO - Bioscience
JF - Bioscience
IS - 4
ER -