Earth Surface Dynamics (Nov 2015)

Bedload transport in a formerly glaciated mountain catchment constrained by particle tracking

  • A. Dell'Agnese,
  • F. Brardinoni,
  • M. Toro,
  • L. Mao,
  • M. Engel,
  • F. Comiti

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-3-527-2015
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 4
pp. 527 – 542

Abstract

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In formerly glaciated mountain settings, Pleistocene glaciations are responsible for profound spatial reorganization of the landscape structure. By imposing local channel slope and the degree of hillslope–channel connectivity, glacial macro-forms can exert first-order controls on the downstream strength and continuity of the coarse sediment cascade. To estimate quantitatively these controls we trace bedload transport for 3 years along Strimm Creek, Eastern Italian Alps. Specifically, we monitor the travel distance of 490 PIT-tagged particles (b axis: 23–229 mm; weight: 83–6525 g) at two contrasting sites: Upper Strimm Creek (US; 4 km2), which flows through a fluvially dominated hanging valley, and Lower Strimm Creek (LS; 7.5 km2), located downstream, in a relict glacial trough where it experiences periodic colluvial sediment inputs from lateral tributaries. Tracer positioning within the streambed is periodically tracked in the field with a portable antenna in order to assess progressive travel distances, as well as the extent of the channel active layer, in relation to snowmelt and rainfall-driven peak flows. Interestingly, we show that tracer virtual velocities for selected inter-survey periods are independent of tracer weight at both study sites. Cumulatively, tracers in US have travelled across distances (i.e. inner quartiles) shorter than 2 m, which correspond to over 2 orders of magnitude less than what was observed in LS. These figures translate, after calculations of tracer inter-survey virtual velocities, into estimated bedload volumes equal to about 3 m3 in US and 600 m3 in LS, with most of the transport (75 % in US, and 93 % in LS) occurring during snowmelt. A similar contrast in bedload transport rates, even without considering the additional volumes of material mobilized by mass-wasting processes in LS, testifies the extent to which the glacial imprinting can still affect contemporary sediment transfer, and thus postglacial landscape evolution, in mountain drainage basins.