Search

Abstract: Recent climatic warming and associated glacial retreat may have a large impact on sediment release and transfer in Alpine river basins. Concurrently, the sediment transport capacity of many European Alpine streams is affected by hydropower exploitation, notably where flow is abstracted but the sediment supply downstream is maintained. Here, we investigate the combined effects of climate change and flow abstraction on morphodynamics and sediment transfer in the Borgne River, Switzerland. From photogrammetrically derived historical Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), we find considerable net aggradation of the braided river bed (up to 5 m) since the onset of flow abstraction in 1963. Reaches responded through bed level steepening which was strongest in the upper most reach. Widespread aggradation however did not commence until the onset of glacier retreat in the late 1980s and the dry and warm years of the early 1990s. Upstream flow intake data shows that this aggradation coincided with an increase in sediment supply, although aggradation accounts for no more than 25% of supplied material. The remainder was transferred through the studied reaches. Estimations of bed load transport capacity indicate that flow abstraction reduces transport capacity by 1–2 orders of magnitude. While residual transport rates vary with morphological evolution, they are in the same order of magnitude as the sediment supply rates, which is why significant transport remains. However, the reduction in transport capacity makes the system more sensitive to short‐term (annual) changes in climate‐driven hydrological variability and climate‐induced changes in intake management and sediment delivery rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that climate has a strong impact and exerts important feedbacks on erosional processes and sediment transport mechanisms. However, the extent at which climate influences erosion is still a matter of debate. In this paper we test whether frost-cracking processes and related temperature variations can influence the sediment production and surface erosion in a small catchment situated in the eastern Italian Alps. To this extent, we first present a geomorphic map of the region that we complement with published 10 Be-based denudation rates. We then apply a preexisting heat-flow model in order to analyze the variations of the frost-cracking intensity (FCI) in the study area, which could have controlled the sediment production in the basin. Finally, we compare the model results with the pattern of denudation rates and Quaternary deposits in the geomorphic map. The model results, combined with field observations, mapping, and quantitative geomorphic analyses, reveal that frost-cracking processes have had a primary role in the production of sediment where the intensity of sediment supply has been dictated and limited by the combined effect of temperature variations and conditions of bedrock preservation. These results highlight the importance of a yet poorly understood process for the production of sediment in mountain areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Quantification of the volumes of sediment removed by rock–slope failure and debris flows and identification of their coupling and controls are pertinent to understanding mountain basin sediment yield and landscape evolution. This study captures a multi-decadal period of hillslope erosion and channel change following an extreme rock avalanche in 1961 in the Illgraben, a catchment prone to debris flows in the Swiss Alps. We analyzed photogrammetrically-derived datasets of hillslope and channel erosion and deposition along with climatic and seismic variables for a 43year period from 1963 to 2005. Based on these analyses we identify and discuss (1) patterns of hillslope production, channel transfer and catchment sediment yield, (2) their dominant interactions with climatic and seismic variables, and (3) the nature of hillslope–channel coupling and implications for sediment yield and landscape evolution in this mountain basin. Our results show an increase in the mean hillslope erosion rate in the 1980s from 0.24±0.01myr−1 to 0.42±0.03myr−1 that coincided with a significant increase in air temperature and decrease in snow cover depth and duration, which we presume led to an increase in the exposure of the slopes to thermal weathering processes. The combination of highly fractured slopes close to the threshold angle for failure, and multiple potential triggering mechanisms, means that it is difficult to identify an individual control on slope failure. On the other hand, the rate of channel change was strongly related to variables influencing runoff. A period of particularly high channel erosion rate of 0.74±0.02myr−1 (1992–1998) coincided with an increase in the frequency and magnitude of intense rainfall events. Hillslope erosion exceeded channel erosion on average, indicative of a downslope-directed coupling relationship between hillslope and channel, and demonstrating the first order control of rock–slope failure on catchment sediment yield and landscape evolution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reconstructing surface elevation, surface uplift, and relief histories is fundamental to understanding the growth of mountain ranges, to explore their topographic limits, and relate these to the interplay between geodynamic and Earth surface processes. Here, we aim to quantify Miocene paleoelevation of the Central European Alps through stable isotope paleoaltimetry. The novelty of our approach, which renders our analysis less sensitive to past climate change, is that stable isotope proxies of identical age are analyzed from both the high internal parts of the Alpine orogen and the adjacent foreland basin. Whereas the foreland basin was at or near sea level and traces the combined effects of upstream changes in rainfall amount and composition, the high Alpine site additionally records the effect of elevation on stable isotopes in precipitation. We compare hydrogen isotopic ratios (δD) in mica and chlorite that interacted with meteoric water along the Simplon detachment, a major normal fault that developed at high elevations, with meteoric water compositions deduced from carbonate-bearing paleosols of the North-Alpine foreland basin. δD values of muscovite (−126‰) and chlorite (−135‰) from the brittle hanging wall and of recrystallized muscovite (−108‰) and biotite (−140‰) from adjacent footwall mylonites provide unequivocal evidence for localized syntectonic meteoric water interaction along the Simplon detachment. Detailed 40Ar/39Ar and fission track geochronology constrains the timing of isotopic exchange to ca. 14.5Ma, when the footwall mylonites passed through the ductile to brittle transition. Age-equivalent oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) measured within pedogenic carbonate from North-Alpine foreland paleosols that developed near Miocene sea level serve as our low-elevation point of reference. δ18O values in these paleosols, dated with ca. 100ka precision, vary between +19 and +25‰ (SMOW) with average values of +20‰ at ca. 14.5Ma. Using the relative differences between meteoric water compositions in the foreland basin and the high Alpine Simplon detachment, our isotope data are consistent with a mid-Miocene minimum average elevation difference of 2350 (+700/−500) m for the Simplon region. Our results indicate that Miocene Alpine elevations were at least comparable to those of today and are likely to have acted as an important barrier to Atlantic-derived moisture transport into central Europe and Eurasia since that time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]