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Straight/sinuous channels
Meandering channels
Braided channels
Anastomosing channels
Geomorphic units
Meander wavelength
Landforms
Floodplains
Floodplains are the land areas adjacent to
alluvial river channels that are frequently
flooded.[2] Floodplains are built up by
deposition of suspended load from
overbank flow, bedload deposition from
lateral river migration, and landscape
processes such as landslides.[2]
Natural levees
Terraces
Geomorphic processes
Natural hydrograph
components
Channel migration
Sediment budgets
Flooding
Biologic components
Riparian habitats
Riparian habitats are especially dynamic in
alluvial river ecosystems due to the
constantly changing fluvial environment.[3]
Alternate bar scour, channel migration,
floodplain inundation, and channel
avulsion create variable habitat conditions
that riparian vegetation must adapt to.[3]
Seedling establishment and forest stand
development depend on favorable
substrate, which in turn is dependent on
how sediment is sorted along the channel
banks.[3] In general, young riparian
vegetation and pioneer species will
establish in areas that are subjected to
active channel processes such as at point
bars, where coarser sediments such as
gravels and cobbles are present but are
seasonally mobilized.[3] Mature riparian
vegetation can establish farther upslope
where finer sediments such as sands and
silts dominate and disturbance from active
river processes are less frequent.[3]
Aquatic habitats
Human impacts
Land use impacts
Logging
Agriculture
Agricultural land uses divert water from
alluvial rivers for crop production, as well
constrain the river’s ability to meander or
migrate due levee construction or other
forms of armoring. The result is simplified
channel morphology with lower baseflows.
References
1. Leopold, Luna B., Wolman, M.G., and
Miller, J.P., 1964, Fluvial Processes in
Geomorphology, San Francisco, W.H.
Freeman and Co., 522p.
2. Bierman, R. B, David R. Montgomery
(2014). Key Concepts in Geomorphology. W.
H. Freeman and Company Publishers.
United States.
3. Trush et al. (2000). Attributes of an
Alluvial River and their Relation to Water
Policy and Management. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences. Vol 92.
No. 22
4. Poff, N. L., Allan, J. D., Bain, M. B., Karr, J.
R., Prestegaard, K. L., Richter, B. D.,
Stromberg, J. C. (1997). The Natural Flow
Regime. BioScience, 47(11), 769–784.
http://doi.org/10.2307/1313099
5. Kondolf, M. G. (1997) Hungry Water:
Effects of Dams and Gravel Mining on River
Channels. Environmental Management Vol.
21, No. 4, pp. 533–551
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