Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using Cosmogenic Nuclides to Understand the Interrelationship between Erosion Rates, Environmental Factors, and Landscape Response

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A better understanding of erosion rates and their influence on sediment loads in streams is important for assessing the impacts on water availability and agricultural land productivity. This doctoral dissertation research project will investigate the abrupt incision of streams into their floodplains caused by extreme temperature and precipitation events in the southwestern U.S. that led to increased sediment loads and impacted the water resources of many communities. The doctoral student will provide new insights into how erosion rates and sediment yields and the effects of sediment supply on these streams will help predict future channel adjustments and manage societal impacts. The student will work closely with local communities and government agencies to assess the vulnerability of water and agricultural land to these changes. The impact on water resources has important policy implications for land and resource managers as well as for stakeholders. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.Because variability in erosion rates influences the sediment content of a stream, rapid changes in those rates may damage productive agricultural land and impact water resources availability. This project will address the core question regarding how erosion rates vary as a function of climatic variables, lithology, and topography, and how such variability influences resource variability in the region. The doctoral student will collect sediment samples from two catchment areas in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area in Utah. She will analyze the terrestrial cosmogenic-nuclide Beryllium-10 (TCN 10Be) concentrations in fluvial sediment. The analyses will provide a quantitative assessment of the landscape's response to bedrock and environmentally related changes in erosion rates and sediment supply. The research outcomes will influence resource and landscape management of the large tracts of public lands in a region that is both shaped and impaired by high sediment loads.