The relation between particle path length distributions and channel morphology in gravel-bed streams: a synthesis

Abstract

The path length (downstream displacement over a given time period) of individual bed particles in gravel-bed rivers is central to morphological methods for measuring bed load transport rate and is also fundamental to understanding the bed load transport process and the development of channel morphology. Previous studies of particle movement using tracers report predominantly strongly positively skewed frequency distributions of path length with modes close to the point of entrainment. However, gravel-bed rivers often have regularly spaced erosion (scour pools) and deposition (channel bars) sites that are several channel widths apart and it is reasonable to expect that particle path length would reflect this morphological scale, at least during flows large enough to create and modify the morphology. Here, we synthesize and re-analyze results from published bed load tracing experiments in gravel-bed rivers to identify the variety of possible path length distributions for differing channel morphology, channel dimensions, bed particle size, and particle mobility (i.e. flow magnitude) and to look for occurrences of path length coinciding with the length scale of the morphology. The results show that path length distributions may be positively skewed, symmetrical, and uni-, bi-, or multi-modal and may include modes that coincide with known or expected pool–bar spacing. Primary path length modes equivalent to possible pool–bar spacing are more probable at higher non-dimensional bed shear stress, from which it is inferred that both particle mobility and channel morphology exert an influence on particle path lengths and that particle movement is unlikely to be stochastic except at relatively low particle mobility. Existing data are inadequate for more than a preliminary analysis of this problem consequently there is a need for new data collected explicitly and systematically to confirm these preliminary results, isolate the effect of the several variables that influence the characteristics of path length frequency distributions and identify the conditions under which path length coincides with the length scale of the dominant morphology.