River morphodynamic records of watershed disturbance
Feb 25 2025 12:30 - 1:30PM
ESB 5104-06
Colloquium
Speaker:
Alessandro Ielpi
·
UBC Okanagan
Hosted by:
Mitch D'Arcy
Description/Abstract
Lowland river channels are hardly ever stable, migrating over time as their flow erodes and deposits sediment along the banks. Channel migration is modulated by a number of physiographic and environmental factors in a watershed, such that disturbance triggered by, e.g., climate change or intense wildfires can alter the characteristic pace at which river channels evolve. This seminar explores this theme, by first presenting a case study of river-channel adaptation to climate change in the western Arctic of North America. Ramifications for watershed biogeochemistry—with a specific focus on fluxes on organic carbon—are then discussed, concluding with an outlook on current and future research directions.