Journal Two

Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011

Louse J. Slater and Michael Bliss Singer

Climate change impacts the levels of precipitation certain areas will receive in the future. For some locations, climate change will increase the amount of precipitation they receive annually while for others it will drastically reduce the level of precipitation they receive. Precipitation, which becomes fluvial discharge, influences the movement of alluvial rivers. Alluvial riverbeds are comprised of mobile sediment that is transported and shapes the river channel during flood events. The article investigated the degree to which stream bed elevation changes due to climate and whether changes to the climate can be observed through riverbeds.

The data was collected through the US Geological Survey streamflow measurements of 915 sites that were minimally impacted by human activities. For each site streambed elevation above the local datum was determined and then Q, streamflow, was calculated from daily flow rates. This uses the data type reports of acts, behaviors or events and uses the data collection method of public and private records. The researchers did not complete the research themselves but used ratio data that was already available to them through the US Geologic Survey to create equations for delineating rates in streambed elevation change. It was concluded that trends in alluvial streambed elevation were influenced by changes in climate.

This research took data that was already in existence and found new ways to use it and found new conclusions that can be drawn from it. This represents a fascinating part of scientific research. You do not always have to be conducting your own research to make new discoveries and to innovate. In fact, with the data already available more time and resources can be spent on properly evaluation and interpreting the results you gain from that data.

The aspect of this article that I would like to highlight for the class is the degree to which all of the physical processes of the earth are connected. When humans adjust the climate it is changing precipitation patterns, which changes how sediment is transported and deposited, which changes the streambed elevation, which changes the likelihood of a rain event causing a flood. The impacts are so vast that research is being done every day to attempt to understand how the changes to climate that we have already observed are impacting the countless systems on earth.

Slater, L. J., & Singer, M. B. (2013). Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011. Geology, 41(5), 595-598.