HR: 08:55h
AN: H31J-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Interactions Between Fluvial Processes and Vegetation in a Newly Created River Channel
AU: * Gurnell, A
EM: angela.gurnell@kcl.ac.uk
AF: King's College London, Department of Geography, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
AB: Following floodplain aggregate extraction, a new river channel was cut in a sinuous, intact ribbon of the floodplain of the River Cole, West Midlands, UK at a point where the river emerges from its urban headwater catchment. The new channel had a trapezoidal cross section of approximately 10m width with no artificially created "geomorphic" forms and no reseeding or planting of vegetation. This paper describes the evolution of fluvial landforms and vegetation cover and composition over the first five years following the diversion of the river into the new channel. A close relationship between vegetation and geomorphology was found across a range of spatial scales. This led to the establishment of a geomorphologically and ecologically complex system within the first three years, with 145 taxa of viable seeds and plants identified. This research illustrates the crucial role of vegetation as well as fluvial processes in driving river morphology. It also indicates that in rivers of modest energy the provision of an initial, sinuous corridor is sufficient to induce rapid development of fluvial features and vegetation cover without the need to construct bed forms or to seed the banks.
DE: 0481 Restoration
DE: 0483 Riparian systems (0744, 1856)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting