Effects of projected climate on the hydrodynamic and sediment transport regime of the lower Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada

The potential effects of climate change on the hydrodynamic and sediment transport regime of the lower Athabasca River (LAR) in Alberta, Canada, is investigated. Future climate projections for the region suggest a potential increase in mean air temperature and precipitation by about 2.8–7.1 °C and 8–25%, respectively, by the end of this century. Implications of these climatic changes on the hydrologic regime of the LAR are found to be significant with spring flows expected to increase by about 11–62% and 26–71% by the end of the century for a moderate and high emissions scenarios respectively with corresponding decreases in summer flows. The effects of such changes are examined using the MIKE‐11 hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling system with inflow boundary conditions corresponding to the changing hydro‐climatic regime. The results suggest that there will be an overall increase in flow velocity, water level, and suspended sediment concentration and transport for most seasons except in the summer months when there may be some decreases. The projected changes in suspended sediment concentration will result in an overall increase in mean annual sediment load in the LAR and to the Peace Athabasca Delta by over 50% towards the latter part of this century (2080s) compared with the 1980s base‐line period. Implications of such potential changes in the transport characteristics of the river system to the mobilization and transport of various chemical constituents and their effects on the region's aquatic ecosystems are subjects of other ongoing investigations

From soil aggregates to riverine flocs : a laboratory experiment assessing the respective effects of soil type and flow shear stress on particles characteristics

Particles eroded from hillslopes and exported to rivers are recognized to be composite particles of high internal complexity. Their architecture and composition are known to influence their transport behaviour within the water column relative to discrete particles. To-date, hillslope erosion studies consider aggregates to be stable once they are detached from the soil matrix. However, lowland rivers and estuaries studies often suggest that particle structure and dynamics are controlled by flocculation within the water column. In order to improve the understanding of particle dynamics along the continuum from hillslopes to the lowland river environment, soil particle behaviour was tested under controlled laboratory conditions. Seven flume erosion and deposition experiments, designed to simulate a natural erosive event, and five shear cell experiments were performed using three contrasting materials: two of them were poorly developed and as such can not be considered as soils, whilst the third one was a calcareous brown soil. These experiments revealed that soil aggregates were prone to disaggregation within the water column and that flocculation may affect their size distribution during transport. Large differences in effective particle size were found between soil types during the rising limb of the bed shear stress sequence. Indeed, at the maximum applied bed shear stress, the aggregated particles median diameter was found to be three times larger for the well-developed soil than for the two others. Differences were smaller in the falling limb, suggesting that soil aggregates underwent structural changes. However, characterization of particles strength parameters showed that these changes did not fully turn soil aggregates into flocs, but rather into hybrid soil aggregate-floc particles

Dynamic interactions between cohesive sediment tracers and natural mud

Cohesive sediment tracers have been developed to improve our understanding of fine sediment transport in the aquatic environment. However, there is little understanding of their physical and dynamic characteristics compared to the natural sediments they are intended to mimic. This work focuses on a labelled clay mineral tracer examining its dynamic characteristics and determining whether it flocculates and interacts with natural estuarine mud. Materials and methods Gross floc characteristics (size and settling velocity) were measured using video image analysis. Floc density,porosity and mass settling flux were then calculated. Fine-scale floc internal structure and composition were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The interaction of the tracer and natural mud was examined by observing tracer and natural mud mixtures. Results and discussion The tracer formed macroflocs (>160 mu m) that could not be distinguished statistically from natural mud, whilst tracer microflocs (<160 mu m) were smaller and settled more slowly. Gross settling characteristics and TEM analysis indicate that the tracer and natural mud do not interact on a primary particle-to-particle basis, although microflocs of pure tracer and mud do interact. The physical and dynamic floc properties of tracer and natural mud mixtures were different from both pure tracer and pure natural mud due to the irregular packing of differently shaped natural mud and tracer flocs. Conclusions The cohesive tracer flocculates and has similar physical and dynamic properties to natural mud; however, when the tracer interacts with natural mud, it forms flocs with significantly different characteristics. These mixed flocs exhibit different transport characteristics (e. g. settling velocity) to natural muddy material. Therefore, cohesive sediment tracers may not accurately predict cohesive sediment transport pathways, and this has implications for the use of cohesive tracers to understand natural mud transport and to develop sediment transport models

Using an optical settling column to assess suspension characteristics within the free, flocculation, and hindered settling regimes

Instruments able to measure the settling velocity distribution (SVD) and investigate the flocculation behavior of suspensions for a wide range of concentrations and settling regimes are required to understand and model sediment transport in headwater catchments. Such knowledge will improve our water resource management capabilities. An optical settling column, equipped with a vertical array of optical sensors, was used to provide light transmission through a suspension during quiescent settling. A new method to determine the settling velocity and the propensity of suspensions to flocculate is proposed. Its reliability was evaluated based on settling tests for (1) noncohesive sediments, (2) cohesive sediments at medium (similar to 1 g l(-1)) concentration in a natural and deflocculated state, and (3) a cohesive sediment at a very high concentration (similar to 10 g l(-1)). This choice of sediments and concentrations allowed for the assessment of free, flocculated, and hindered settling regimes. The proposed data processing method provides measurements for a range of test conditions. The result showed that different populations of particles with different settling behaviors can be identified within the suspensions. In the case of noncohesive sediments, the proposed method provided SVD similar to those obtained with reference methods. The propensity to flocculate was zero as expected for inert material. The natural cohesive sediment at medium concentration exhibited a large range of SVD (10(-2)-10(-5) m s(-1)) and high propensity to flocculate. These were both reduced with the addition of a deflocculant. Identified particle behaviors were consistent with independent measurement of size distribution, microscopic, and erosion properties. In the hindered regime, a narrow SVD corresponded to the hindered front settling velocity (similar to 10(-4) m s(-1)). An optical settling column was able to provide reliable SVD and an evaluation of the propensity of particles to flocculate. The settling column was able to detect variations of the settling velocities with settled depth, thus highlighting that settling columns with a single measurement point may provide erroneous results by not accounting for the full spectrum of settling depth