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

该项目评估了大型河流干线中河流形态和剖面的长期上游变化向下游传输的速率和过程。 下游河谷内记录的主要变化通常归因于上游流域内气候和/或土地利用的根本变化。 这种观测在重建可能影响流域的主要地方和区域气候变化事件和/或文化变化方面非常有用。 协调河流动力学变化与流域内的事件，需要一个基本的了解的过程和速率，他们的信号通过河流。 这些问题在小流域受到适度限制，但对于具有长干线和复杂流域的大型河流却知之甚少。 这项研究旨在了解这些信号在大河中传输的过程和滞后时间。 研究将特别针对密苏里州河下游。 该项目检查了三个长谷河段，以获取全新世河流形态和剖面三个变化的过程和速率的保存证据，这些变化已经在第四个河段的下游确定。 每年夏天将有10名本科生参与调查密苏里州河漫滩的范围。 每个学生将独立绘制和评估一段可及范围。 他们还将与小组中的其他学生互动，以确定从小组的集体结果中可以得出什么结论。 然后，他们将有机会与其他项目年份的学生互动，以确定项目的累积成果。 教育目标是传授科学过程的技能和知识（短期目标），帮助招聘新的科学家，传授科学的相关性，并保留现有的本科理科学生（长期目标）。 这项研究的目标是一个不同的人口的本科生在机构与最小的研究机会谁是在大二的大学水平。

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.