Journal Article

Diverse Responses of Alluvial Rivers to Periodic Environmental Change

Turowski, J. M., McNab, F., Wickert, A. D., Schildgen, T. F.

2023

Overview

Alluvial rivers aggrade, incise, and adjust their sediment‐transport rates in response to changing sediment and water supply. Fluvial landforms, such as river terraces, and downstream stratigraphic archives may therefore record information about past environmental change. Using a physically based model describing sediment transport and long‐profile evolution of alluvial rivers, we explore how their responses to environmental change depend on distance downstream, forcing timescales, and whether sediment or water supply is varied. We show that amplitudes of aggradation and incision, and therefore the likelihood of terrace formation, are greater upstream and in shorter and/or wetter catchments. Aggradation and incision, and therefore terrace ages, may also lag behind environmental change. How sediment‐transport rates evolve depends strongly on whether water or sediment supply is varied. Diverse responses to environmental change could arise in natural alluvial valleys, controlled by their geometry and hydrology, with important implications for paleo‐environmental interpretations of fluvial archives. Plain Language Summary Rivers carry sediment from upland regions, where it is produced by weathering and erosion, to low‐lying areas where it is deposited and stored. This process is sensitive to climate: for example, wetter conditions enhance rivers' capacity to transport sediment, causing rivers to cut into their beds, which in turn remobilizes sediment that is transported downstream. Changing climate may also lead to enhanced sediment production and supply to rivers, causing them to accumulate sediment in their beds. Climate cycles can therefore produce alternating periods of sediment accumulation and removal, resulting in ancient floodplains being abandoned and preserved alongside modern rivers (“terraces”), and in variations in the amounts of sediment delivered downstream. Terraces and patterns of sediment accumulation downstream could therefore provide valuable records of past climatic change. We develop a mathematical model that describes the effects of climatic change on river‐bed height and sediment‐transport rates. We show how the amount and timing of river in‐filling and down‐cutting, and the timescales over which they occur, depend on the rate of climatic change, on river length and associated drainage‐basin area, and on the amount of water it carries. These predictions will facilitate more detailed interpretations of terrace records along rivers and of the sedimentary deposits that they leave behind. Key Points Alluvial rivers respond in diverse ways to cyclical climatic change depending on their geometry and hydrology and on the forcing frequency Terrace formation is favored upstream and in shorter and wetter catchments and may lag appreciably behind environmental change Variation in sediment output lags variation in sediment supply but can lead and be amplified with respect to variation in water supply

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Accretion / Accumulation / Aggradation / Alluvial rivers / Alluvial valleys / Archives & records / Catchments / Climate change / Climate effects / Downstream / Drainage basins / environmental change / Environmental changes / Floodplains / Fluvial deposits / Fluvial sediments / Hydrology / Landforms / Mathematical models / Moisture content / paleoclimate / Records / river terraces / Rivers / Sediment / Sediment deposits / Sediment transport / Sediments / stratigraphic archives / Stratigraphy / Terraces / Water content / Water supply / Watersheds / Weathering