A palaeoenvironmental study of particle size-specific connectivity- new insights and implications from the West Sussex Rother Catchment, United Kingdom

Ian Foster, Matilda Biddulph, John Boardman, Ruth Copeland-Phillips, Jennine L Evans, Simon Pulley, Yusheng Zhang, Adrian L Collins

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Connectivity has become an important conceptual and practical framework for understanding and managing sediment transfers across hillslopes, between hillslopes and rivers and between rivers and other compartments along the river corridor (e.g. reservoirs, channel substrate, floodplain). Conventionally, connectivity focuses on the quantity of sediment transferred but here we also consider the size of the finer sediment (typically particles < 500 µm diameter). We examine the role of small rapidly silting reservoirs in the River Rother on storing sediment and disrupting downstream sediment transfers. Spatial and temporal changes in the particle size characteristics of sediment deposited in one of the ponds is explored in detail. Downstream of this pond we collected sediment from the river on nine occasions over 17 months using two sampling methods at two locations; one immediately downstream of the pond and a second ~700 m further downstream but upstream of the confluence with the Rother. Results showed a significant depletion in sand sized particles immediately downstream of the pond but the sand had been recovered from an in-channel source before the river reached the downstream sampling point.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number3477
    Pages (from-to)1192-1202
    Number of pages10
    JournalRiver Research and Applications
    Volume35
    Issue number8
    Early online date15 Jul 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 8 Nov 2019

    Keywords

    • Environmental Chemistry
    • General Environmental Science
    • Water Science and Technology

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