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Merritt, David M

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The combined influence of tree-clearing, road construction, snowmaking, and machine-grading can cause increased flow and sediment loads along streams in or adjacent to commercial ski resorts. These changes to stream channels can increase bank failures, bed material size, pool scour, and, in extreme cases, channel incision. We used field data from the White River National Forest in Colorado, which includes several major ski resorts, to test the hypothesis that ski slope development causes a significant difference in bank stability, undercut banks, fine sediment, wood load, pool residual depth, and particle size (D84) between the ski area project streams and reference streams. We further hypothesize that the changes...
The water supply provided by the Colorado River system is critical to millions of residents in the arid and semiarid western United States. Understanding the response of the system to possible hydrologic occurrences is important to water planners and managers for short, medium, and long term planning and operation of the system. A long sequence of historical streamflow records is available for the river system; however, this sequence is not sufficient to capture the complex temporal and spatial variability of the river system. The overall objective of the study is to determine the effect of alternative possible future hydrologic scenarios on water supply availability throughout the entire river system. Another objective...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
Riparian cottonwood (Populus deltoides) forests form the one of the most extensive deciduous forest ecosystems in arid regions of the western United States. However, cottonwood populations are threatened by flow alteration and channel degradation caused by dams, water diversions, and groundwater pumping. We developed a stochastic, density-dependent, population model to (1) consolidate information concerning cottonwood population dynamics in a conceptual and analytical framework, (2) determine whether complex forest stand dynamics can be predicted from basic cottonwood vital rates and river hydrology, and (3) aid in planning prescribed floods by projecting how altered flow regimes might affect populations. The model...
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