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This work is designed to broaden the scope with which many people
regard a river. Rivers are commonly regarded from a very simplistic
perspective as conduits for downstream flows of water. In this
context, it may be considered acceptable and necessary to engineer
the channel to either facilitate such flows (e.g., channelization,
levees) or limit flows and store water (e.g., water supply
reservoirs, flood control). The book presents the concept of a
river as a spatially and temporally complex ecosystem that is
likely to be disrupted in unexpected and damaging ways by direct
river engineering and by human activities throughout a drainage
basin. Viewing a river as a complex ecosystem with nonlinear
responses to human activities will help to promote a more nuanced
and effective approach to managing river ecosystems and to
sustaining the water resources that derive from rivers. In this
context, water resources refers to ecosystem services including
water supply, water quality, flood control, erosion control, and
riverine biota (e.g., freshwater fisheries). Chapters in this book
draw extensively on existing literature but integrate this
literature from a fresh perspective. General principles are
expanded upon and illustrated with photographs, line drawings,
tables, and brief, site-specific case studies from rivers around
the world.
To contemplate an alpine lake or a ribbon of white water twisting
down the face of the Rocky Mountains is to appreciate the majesty
of this block of bedrock thrust up from Earth's interior,
weathering eons of nature's assaults. To learn what humans, in our
brief lifespan, have done here is to acquire a sobering sense of
our place in the natural world. Ellen Wohl's account of a year in
the life of Rocky Mountain National Park reflects a lifelong
interest in these rhythms and disruptions. Informed by a deep and
intimate understanding of the landscape, her Rocky Mountain journal
is a lyrical distillation of experience and knowledge that shows us
the century-old national park as a microcosm of the natural world
in the thrall of time and humanity. Conducting readers through the
park's seasons, Wohl describes the processes that unfold over the
ages as continents drift and mountain ranges rise, as glaciers
carve the land and profound changes in the atmosphere alter the
environment. Working on the landscape in a humbler way are beavers
and elk, beetles and, not so humbly, humans, who tinker with
natural rhythms in ways big and small, as obvious as logging, road
building, and feedlot run-off, and as subtle in the short run as
climate change. Along the way, we observe the effects of nature's
more violent moments: flash floods that wash out roads and inflict
damage downstream, high winds that flatten whole hillsides in
minutes, wildfires that strip the woods in an instant or smolder
all winter long. A work of quiet power, Rhythms of Change in Rocky
Mountain National Park traces Wohl's year-long journey, deftly
guiding us through the changing seasons of one of America's most
awe-inspiring natural places in all its curiosity and wonder-and in
its exposure to the larger forces inexorably altering the natural
world.
Rivers are the great shapers of terrestrial landscapes. Very few
points on Earth above sea level do not lie within a drainage basin.
Even points distant from the nearest channel are likely to be
influenced by that channel. Tectonic uplift raises rock thousands
of meters above sea level. Precipitation falling on the uplifted
terrain concentrates into channels that carry sediment downward to
the oceans and influence the steepness of adjacent hill slopes by
governing the rate at which the landscape incises. Rivers migrate
laterally across lowlands, creating a complex topography of
terraces, floodplain wetlands and channels. Subtle differences in
elevation, grain size, and soil moisture across this topography
control the movement of ground water and the distribution of plants
and animals. Rivers in the Landscape, Second Edition, emphasizes
general principles and conceptual models, as well as concrete
examples of each topic drawn from the extensive literature on river
process and form. The book is suitable for use as a course text or
a general reference on rivers. Aimed at advanced undergraduate
students, graduate students, and professionals looking for a
concise summary of physical aspects of rivers, Rivers in the
Landscape is designed to: emphasize the connectivity between rivers
and the greater landscape by explicitly considering the
interactions between rivers and tectonics, climate, biota, and
human activities; provide a concise summary of the current state of
knowledge for physical process and form in rivers; reflect the
diversity of river environments, from mountainous, headwater
channels to large, lowland, floodplain rivers and from the arctic
to the tropics; reflect the diverse methods that scientists use to
characterize and understand river process and form, including
remote sensing, field measurements, physical experiments, and
numerical simulations; reflect the increasing emphasis on
quantification in fluvial geomorphology and the study of Earth
surfaces in general; provide both an introduction to the classic,
foundational papers on each topic, and a guide to the latest,
particularly insightful and integrative references.
Something Hidden in the Ranges is designed for readers interested
in natural and environmental history and specifically the natural
history of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We all see the
largest features of ecosystems - the impressively rugged mountain
peaks, the clear blue lakes, and the extensive forests - but each
of these readily visible features depends on largely invisible
creatures and flows of material and energy. This book draws on a
wide array of scientific research to tell stories such as how
streams provide energy to the adjacent forest, how lake sediments
record the history of pollutants entering the lake with wind-blown
dust, and how a network of fungi keeps forests healthy. Individual
chapters explore forests at lower and higher elevations and how
trees rely on microbes in the soil, in the forest canopy, and even
within individual pine needles to obtain the food they need. Other
chapters focus on subalpine lakes, mountain streams, beaver
meadows, and alpine tundra. Written to be easily understood by any
reader, this book will change the way you perceive and think about
natural landscapes.
Dead Wood explores the life and afterlife of three trees growing
along a river: a spruce in the Colorado Rockies, a western red
cedar in Washington, and a balsam poplar in Canada. Each tree is
enmeshed in a biological community during its lifetime and
continues to support other forms of life after death as the fallen
tree enters a floodplain, a beach, or the open ocean.
"A World of Rivers" explores the confluence of human and
environmental change on ten of the great rivers of the world.
Ranging from the Yellow River in China to Central Europe's Danube,
the book journeys down the most important rivers in all corners of
the globe. Wohl shows us how pollution, such as in the Ganges and
in the Ob of Siberia, has affected biodiversity in the water. But
rivers are also resilient, and Wohl stresses the importance of
conservation and restoration to help reverse the effects of human
carelessness and hubris. What these diverse rivers share is a
critical role in shaping surrounding landscapes and biological
communities, and Wohl's book ultimately makes a strong case for the
need to steward positive change in the world's great rivers.
Far from being the serene, natural streams of yore, modern rivers
have been diverted, dammed, dumped in, and dried up, all in efforts
to harness their power for human needs. But these rivers have also
undergone environmental change. The old adage says you can't step
in the same river twice, and Ellen Wohl would agree--natural and
synthetic change are so rapid on the world's great waterways that
rivers are transforming and disappearing right before our eyes. "A
World of Rivers" explores the confluence of human and environmental
change on ten of the great rivers of the world. Ranging from the
Murray-Darling in Australia and the Yellow River in China to
Central Europe's Danube and the United States' Mississippi, the
book journeys down the most important rivers in all corners of the
globe. Wohl shows us how pollution, such as in the Ganges and in
the Ob of Siberia, has affected biodiversity in the water. But
rivers are also resilient, and Wohl stresses the importance of
conservation and restoration to help reverse the effects of human
carelessness and hubris. What all these diverse rivers share is a
critical role in shaping surrounding landscapes and biological
communities, and Wohl's book ultimately makes a strong case for the
need to steward positive change in the world's great rivers.
The ability of beavers to create an abundant habitat for a diverse
array of plants and animals has been analyzed time and again. The
disappearance of beavers across the northern hemisphere, and what
this effects, has yet to be comprehensively studied. Saving the
Dammed analyzes the beneficial role of beavers and their dams in
the ecosystem of a river, focusing on one beaver meadow in
Colorado. In her latest book, Ellen Wohl contextualizes North St.
Vrain Creek by discussing the implications of the loss of beavers
across much larger areas. Saving the Dammed raises awareness of
rivers as ecosystems and the role beavers play in sustaining the
ecosystem surrounding rivers by exploring the macrocosm of global
river alteration, wetland loss, and the reduction in ecosystem
services. The resulting reduction in ecosystem services span things
such as flood control, habitat abundance and biodiversity, and
nitrate reduction. Allowing readers to follow her as she crawls
through seemingly impenetrable spaces with slow and arduous
movements, Wohl provides a detailed narrative of beaver meadows.
Saving the Dammed takes readers through twelve months at a beaver
meadow in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, exploring how
beavers change river valleys and how the decline in beaver
populations has altered river ecosystems. As Wohl analyzes and
discusses the role beavers play in the ecosystem of a river,
readers get to follow her through tight, seemingly impenetrable,
crawl spaces as she uncovers the benefit of dams.
This important and accessible book surveys the history and present
condition of river systems across the United States, showing how
human activities have impoverished our rivers and impaired the
connections between river worlds and other ecosystems. Ellen Wohl
begins by introducing the basic physical, chemical, and biological
processes operating in rivers. She then addresses changes in rivers
resulting from settlement and expansion, describes the growth of
federal involvement in managing rivers, and examines the recent
efforts to rehabilitate and conserve river ecosystems. In each
chapter she focuses on a specific regional case study and describes
what happens to a particular river organism-a bird, North America's
largest salamander, the paddlefish, and the American alligator-when
people interfere with natural processes.
Sparsely settled mountain areas of the world, such as Colorado's
Front Range, give an impression of wild, untouched, and unchanging
nature. Yet in many cases mountain rivers that appear to be
pristine natural systems actually have been impaired as a result of
human activities. In this timely and accessible book, Ellen Wohl
documents two hundred years of land-use patterns on the Front Range
and their wide-ranging effects on river ecosystems. If we hope to
manage river resources effectively and preserve functioning river
ecosystems, the author warns, we must recognize how beaver
trapping, placer mining, timber harvesting, flow regulation, road
and railroad construction, recreation, cattle grazing, and other
human activities have impaired rivers--and continue to do so. The
rivers of the Colorado Front Range are representative of mountain
rivers throughout the world: land-use patterns affecting their form
and function are little-recognized or -understood. This book fills
an important gap with a clear and comprehensive explanation of how
rivers are changed by human activity and includes a generous
selection of striking historical and contemporary photographs,
maps, and diagrams.
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