HR: 1330h
AN: H52A-1153    [PDF]
TI: Sediment Dynamics and Southern Steelhead Habitat (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Matilija Creek Watershed, Southern California
AU: * Minear, J T
EM: tminear@uclink.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, 202 Wurster Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2000 United States
AU: Kondolf, G M
EM: kondolf@uclink.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, 202 Wurster Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2000 United States
AB: Matilija Creek, one of two principal forks of the Ventura River, drains 142 km2 in the Transverse Ranges of southern California. Thanks to rapid tectonic uplift and weak clastic rocks, sediment yields exceed 1200 m3/km2 annually. Matilija Dam was built in 1947 with an initial capacity of 8 million m3 and is now nearly full of sediment. The dam is structurally unsafe, blocks anadromous fish migration, and is being considered for removal. The Ventura River has one of the southernmost runs of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), with an average of approximately 2,500 annually migrating up Matilija Creek before the dam was built. The high sediment yields and highly variable flow regime have raised questions about the interactions among high flows, sediment transfer from lower order tributaries to the third order channels used by the fish, and fish life history. Previous studies in Southern California have documented sediment yields (especially following debris flows and fires, and mostly in the San Gabriel Mountains), but the interaction of geomorphic processes and aquatic habitat in this highly episodic environment is not well understood. We used a combination of mapping and survey techniques, sediment traps, grain size analysis, lithologic analysis and scour rods to study intra-annual geomorphic processes and sediment dynamics affecting Southern Steelhead habitat in the Matilija Creek area in 16 study pools over the 2002 and 2003 flow seasons (dry and "normal", respectively) and found little sediment was deposited or scoured from pools. However, other processes not previously recognized significantly affected the steelhead habitat in the study pools including tufa cementation (carbonate deposition) and alder root growth in spawning gravels, as well as seasonal desiccation of some reaches. Removal of Matilija Dam will reopen suitable habitat to steelhead trout, but managers should recognize that habitat quality is likely to vary considerably from year-to-year, especially in response to episodic events.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1815 Erosion and sedimentation
DE: 1824 Geomorphology (1625)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting