REU Site: Rates, Processes, and Implications of Big Changes in the Shape and Style of the Missouri River

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This project evaluates rates and processes for downstream transmission of long-term upstream changes in river morphology and profile in large river trunks. Major changes recorded within lower river valleys are commonly ascribed to fundamental changes in climate and/or land use within the upper drainage basin. Such observations are very useful in reconstructing major local and regional climate-change events and/or cultural changes that may have impacted the drainage area. Coordinating changes in river dynamics with events within the drainage basin requires a fundamental understanding of the processes and rates by which their signals pass down river. These issues are moderately constrained for small drainages but are poorly understood for large rivers with long trunks and complex drainage areas. This research is aimed at understanding processes and lag times for transmission of these signals in large rivers. Research will particularly address the Lower Missouri River. The project exams three long valley reaches for preserved evidence of the processes and rates for translation of three changes in Holocene river morphology and profile that are already identified within a lower fourth reach. Ten undergraduate students will be engaged each summer in an effort to investigate a reach of the Missouri River floodplain. Each student will map and assess a segment of the reach independently. They will also interact with the other students in their group to determine what conclusions can be made from the collective results of the group. They will then be given the opportunity to interact with students from other project years to ascertain the cumulative results of project. The educational goals are to impart skills and knowledge of the scientific process (short-term goals) and to aid recruitment of new scientists, impart a sense of relevance of science, and retain existing undergraduate science students (long-term goals). This research targets a diverse population of undergraduate students at institutions with minimal research opportunities who are at sophomore college levels.