Sediment Movement Near a Tropical Wood Jam

One mechanism by which wood interacts with sediment transport is the trapping of sediment behind jams. In tropical streams, higher discharge per unit of contributing area and higher microbial diversity relative to temperate zones are likely to cause in-stream wood to be more transient. This may reduce the residence time of jams, also reducing wood-induced sediment storage. To begin to evaluate this possibility, tracer clasts, scour chains, and wood pieces were surveyed four times from June 2007 to June 2008 at a wood jam in a stream in Costa Rica. At the study site the moderate gradient (3.2%) stream drains 1.6 km2 of preserved old-growth tropical wet forest of La Selva Biological Station. The mean grain size of the bed material is 205 mm, ranging from coarse sand to boulders, with discontinuous bedrock outcrops on both banks. Distance traveled by the tracer clasts was positively correlated with both maximum and average daily rainfall during the time between surveys. Between the first two surveys, a new accumulation of wood in the jam blocked the thalweg and redirected the majority of flow around the side of the jam. A 15-cm-thick wedge of sediment was deposited behind the blockage, and gravel bars adjacent to and immediately downstream of the jam were scoured by as much as 30 cm. The majority of the gravel sized tracer clasts placed upstream of the jam were not recovered and were presumably incorporated into the sediment wedge. Tracer clasts placed in the portion of the channel affected by the redirected flow were transported downstream as much as 47 m. Clasts larger than D55 (220 mm) were not transported in the course of the study. The jam and key pieces persisted for the entire study period, and the number of pieces in the jam stayed nearly constant. However, the structure was modified and only 46% of the original pieces were retained for the full year. The clast transport distance was positively correlated with wood turnover rate for the three inter-survey intervals.