ECOLOGGERS: I was a bit remiss in not posting the results of the inquiry that I placed on ECOLOG (back in July) about losses of backwater habitats below dams. There still seems to be a paucity of papers on this, at least in the primary literature. As a side note, my former MS student and I are finishing revisions on a paper (for River Research and Applications) that documents historic backwater and side channel changes below Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River.
A few sources that we have found include: Funk JI, Robinson JW. 1974. Changes in the Channel of the Lower Missouri River. Aquatic Series No. 11. Missouri Department of Conservation. Minnear, P.J. 1995. Historical change in channel form and riparian vegetation of the McKenzie River, Oregon. MS Thesis, Oregon State University. Schramm, H.L. Jr., R.B. Minnis, A.B. Spencer, and R.T. Theel. 2008. Aquatic habitat change in the Arkansas River after the development of a lock-and-dam commercial navigation system. River Research and Applications 24:237-248. Whitley, J.R. and R.S. Campbell. 1974. Some aspects of water quality and biology of the Missouri River. Transactions, Missouri Academy of Science 7/8:60-72. The Funk and Robinson (1974) and Whitley and Campbell (1974) papers actually deal more with the effects of bank stabilization and channelization on losses of aquatic habitats on the lower Missouri River, and I'm not sure that they have rigorous quantitative estimates of backwater loss. The Schramm et al. (2008) paper looks good and is one of the few that provides data on backwater losses. For our study area (below Gavins Point Dam, near Yankton, SD) on the Missouri River, we have also used the following references for local changes in backwater or side channel habitats: Elliott CM, Jacobson RB. 2006. Geomorphic Classification and Assessment of Channel Dynamics in the Missouri National Recreational River, South Dakota and Nebraska. U.S. Geological Survey, Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5313. 66p. Morris LA, Langemeier RN, Russel TR, Witt A Jr. 1968. Effects of Main Stem Impoundments and Channelization upon the Limnology of the Missouri River, Nebraska. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission—Staff Research Publications. Schmulbach JC, Schuckman JJ, Nelson EA. 1981. Aquatic Habitat Inventory of the Missouri River from Gavins Point Dam to Ponca State Park, Nebraska. Job Completion Report. Contract# DACW45-80-C-0155. Volesky DF. 1969. A comparison of the Macrobenthos from Selected Habitats in Cattail Marshes of the Missouri River, Vermillion, SD, MA Thesis, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD. Finally, below are excerpts of responses to my original ECOLOG post: ************************************************************************************ I just saw this paper come out online at RRA: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rra.1553/abstract ************************************************************************************ Check Grand Canyon literature. But I can tell that, there, due to the loss of flushing flows, the problem tends to be siltation filling the backwaters and side channels. ******************************************************************************************** I am a biologist and work with the four National Wildlife Refuges on the lower Colorado River. We see first-hand, the loss of backwaters and wildlife habitat that a highly regulated (dammed and channelized) river causes. ******************************************************************************************** It is gray lit, but have you checked out Helen Light et al series of USGS reports on the Apalachicola River? For one: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2006/5173/ ************************************************************************************ you might check the US Army Corps of Engineers govt pubs. I bet there is stuff there. In fact, they produce floodplain/floodway maps so certainly they have the data somewhere! This is a difficult one because it could actually be published under many different headings. Then, with the dam issues, you could be looking at USFWS, USFS, BLM, and USACE. Then, there are also the government pubs for other nations. Might also check the state agencies. They keep long files with many reports that might be relevant. In fact, you might find the info in USEPA documents if they did any RAPID Bioassessment protocols. Did they do the TMDLs for the CWA up there? If so, there may be a lot of info in USEPA reports too. ********************************************************************************************* I think a lot of the information on sedimentation in backwaters is in grey literature, at least what there might be of it. Backwater studies have been sparse in general. The only thing that I comes immediately to mind is a paper by Rip Sparks in Bioscience either in 1995 or 1998 (I think it was the 1995 paper). There has got to have been something in a USGS report but cannot think of it. Their website is www.umesc.usgs.gov. Filling of backwaters and secondary channels is an issue on the Upper Miss, too. There are some other papers in both Bioscience issues that might be of use. ********************************************************************************************* I know there's some analysis of this topic in the AFS publication "Historical Changes in Large River Fish Assemblages of the Americas" http://www.afsbooks.org/x54045xm . I think this paper might be of the most interest to you: A Comparison of the Pre- and Postimpoundment Fish Assemblage of the Upper Mississippi River (Pools 4–13) with an Emphasis on Centrarchids Jeffrey A. Janvrin Also related and worth a read is this historical review of channel alteration on the Upper Mississippi: http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/A/anfinson_river.html ***************************************************************************** Below is my original post. If anyone else has run across useful papers on this topic, feel free to pass them along. Thanks again. Mark Dixon ________________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dixon, Mark [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2011 7:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ECOLOG-L] papers on loss of backwater habitat below dams I'm looking for papers that report changes in backwater and side channel habitat on rivers below dams. It seems like common sense that declines should occur, due to channel incision, reduction in sediment transport, reductions in flooding, etc., but I've actually run across very little thus far in the literature. I'd appreciate any citations that any of you know of. Journal articles are preferred, but theses and gray literature are OK too. Regards, Mark Dixon
