Coarse sediment transport dynamics at three spatial scales of bedrock channel bed complexity

Rivers incised into bedrock in fold-dominated terrain display a complex bed topography that strongly interacts with local hydraulics to produce spatial differences in bed sediment flux. We used painted tracer clasts to investigate how this complex bed topography influences coarse sediment transport at three spatial scales (reach, cross- section and grain). The study was conducted along the Ocoee River gorge, Tennessee between the TVA Ocoee #3 dam and the 1996 Olympic whitewater course. The bed topography consists of undulating bedrock ribs, which are formed at a consistent strike to the bedding and cleavage of the metagreywake and phyllite substrate. Ribs vary in their orientation to flow (from parallel to oblique) and amplitude among three study reaches. These bedrock ribs create a rough bed topography that substantially alters the local flow field and influences reach- scale roughness. In each reach, 300 tracer clasts were randomly selected from the existing bed material. Tracer clasts were surveyed and transport distances were calculated after five scheduled summer releases and a suite of slightly larger but sporadic winter releases. Transport distances were examined as a function of rib orientation and amplitude (reach scale), spatial proximity to bedrock ribs and standard deviation of the bed elevation (cross- section scale), and whether clasts were hydraulically shielded by surrounding clasts, incorporated in the armour layer, imbricated, and/or existed in a pothole, in addition to size and angularity. At the reach scale, where ribs are parallel to flow, lower reach-scale roughness leads to greater sediment transport capacity, sediment flux and transport distances because transport is uninhibited in the downstream direction. Preliminary results indicate that cross section scale characteristics of bed topography exert a greater control on transport distances than grain size.