Burrowing activity in channel levees: impact of the invasive red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii
Abstract
The effect of animal burrowing, as an example of bioturbation on the stability of river levees has been recently raised to the scientific community as a consequence of the levee collapses of Secchia and Foenna rivers in Italy (Camici et al., 2010, 2014; Orlandini et al., 2015). Indeed, these authors showed that the presence of animal burrows is crucial in promoting the collapse of the bank. The American red swamp Crayfish Procambarus clarkii is an invasive species in Europe, mostly introduced for commercial purposes related to livestock. It is rapidly spreading throughout the Italian peninsula due to its plasticity, dispersal capability and high reproduction rate (Souty-Grosset et al., 2016). As well as the negative effects on local biodiversity, it damages the levees of the irrigation channel leading to disastrous collapses, relevant repairing and maintenance costs. In this work, we present an experimental activity where specimens of P. clarkii were monitored while burrowing into a small-scale physical model of an earthen levee, coupled with the mathematical modelling of the variations induced by the burrows on the seepage flow patterns through the levee.Preliminary results show the burrowing structure was quite irregular. Generally, crayfish start burrowing under the water level, developing tunnels (diameter ranging 4-7cm) both horizontally and heading upward, also above the water level. Some tunnels showed one or more circular chambers. The highest burrowing activity was observed during the experiments carried out in summer, when the species has a peak of maximum activity due to the higher temperature. Mathematical modelling shows that, for given boundary conditions and experimental duration, the presence of burrows in the levee raises the phreatic line. Critical conditions for levee integrity may be associated either to the internal erosion and stability of the system of tunnels and to the emergence of the phreatic line of the landside of the levee slope. These aspects are currently under investigation.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMEP32B..07S
- Keywords:
-
- 1813 Eco-hydrology;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1824 Geomorphology: general;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1862 Sediment transport;
- HYDROLOGY