A collaborative project with Jon Czuba (Biological System Engineering at VT) was funded by the NSF to investigate the physical controls on the level of embeddedness (or amount of fine sediment within the pore space of the bed) in gravel-bed streams (see figure below). Understanding physical controls on embeddedness is important for assessing and predicting stream bed health and the erosional characteristics of a river.
The project will use field sampling, analysis of historic datasets, and new laboratory experiments to improve our ability to predict the composition of the surface layer in gravel-bed stream.
See Czuba et al. (2022) below for more information on the current effort to improve remote predictions of streambed embeddedness.
Czuba, J. A., Hirschler, M., Pratt, E. A., Villamagna, A., & Angermeier, P. L. (2022). Bankfull shear velocity predicts embeddedness and silt cover in gravel streambeds. River Research and Applications, 38(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3878
