Sedimentation in bottomland hardwoods downstream of an east Texas dam

Abstract

Dams and reservoirs are often efficient sediment traps, and conventional wisdom holds that fluvial sediment supplies are reduced well downstream. However, there are reasons to question the extent to which fluvial and alluvial sediment supplies are reduced more than a few kilometers downstream of dams. Sedimentation in bottomlands of Loco Bayou, east Texas, was investigated at a site less than 16 km downstream of Loco Dam and Lake Nacogdoches, which controls 86% of the 265-km2 drainage area. Turbidity levels are generally as high or higher than those on Loco Bayou upstream of the lake. Sedimentation rates on the lower floodplain since the dam was completed are 11 mm year–1 or more. This rate is high enough to suggest that the dam has no effect on sediment supplies 16 km downstream. The spatial pattern of sedimentation and the vegetation distribution suggest that the elevation and frequency of flooding, not fluvial sediment availability, are the critical factors in determining sediment supplies to these floodplains.