Suspended-sediment and dissolved-solid (salt) loads decreased after the early 1940s in the Colorado Plateau portion of the Colorado River basin, although discharge of major rivers ? the Colorado, Green and San Juan ? did not change significantly. This decline followed a period of high sediment yield caused by arroyo cutting. Reduced sediment loads have previously been explained by a change in sediment sampling procedures or changes in climate, land-use and conservation practices. More recent work has revealed that both decreased sediment production and sediment storage in channels of tributary basins produced the decline of sediment and salt loads. Sediment production and sediment storage are important components of incised-channel [...]
