[1] Field data from channels in the Henry Mountains of Utah demonstrate that abundant coarse sediment can inhibit fluvial incision into bedrock by armoring channel beds (the cover effect). We compare several small channels that share tributary junctions and have incised into the same sedimentary bedrock unit (Navajo Sandstone) but contain differing amounts of coarse diorite clasts owing to the ...

[1] Independent lithologic and structural controls in fluvial bedrock systems interact with coarse sediment transport processes to play a key role in bedrock incision processes such as abrasion. During a 3 year study on the Ocoee River in the Blue Ridge Province of the southern Appalachians, USA, we used painted tracer clasts to measure coarse sediment transport dynamics and address whether dif...

It is common for subsurface flow to transition between porous and fractured media. Two examples include vertical infiltration of precipitation through a permeable soil overlying a fractured bedrock, and horizontal ground water flow through a combination of porous and fractured geologic units. A reduction in flow or flow impedance may occur across these interfaces caused by head losses associate...

Field surveys of channel width w and drainage area A in bedrock channel reaches reveal relationships where w 5 cA, similar to the classic hydraulic geometry of alluvial channels. Data from five mountain channel networks support the assumption used in many landscape evolution models that an alluvial hydraulic geometry relationship where b 5 0.3–0.5 holds for bedrock channel systems. Although the...

The lowermost Mississippi River, defined herein as the river segment downstream of the Old River Control Structure and hydrodynamically influenced by the Gulf of Mexico, extends for approximately 500 km. This segment includes a bedrock (or more precisely, mixed bedrock-alluvial) reach that is bounded by an upstream alluvial-bedrock transition and a downstream bedrock-alluvial transition. Here w...

Earth's land surface teems with life. Although the distribution of ecosystems is largely explained by temperature and precipitation, vegetation can vary markedly with little variation in climate. Here we explore the role of bedrock in governing the distribution of forest cover across the Sierra Nevada Batholith, California. Our sites span a narrow range of elevations and thus a narrow range in ...

We compared the elemental composition of soil and bedrock samples to determine the extent of chemical weathering and the nature of the soil parent material in alpine soils on Vermont's highest summit. Previously it was unclear whether these soils formed through weathering of bedrock, glacial till, or eolian sediment, or solely through the accumulation of organic matter. In eighteen profiles, no...

[1] Abrasion by bed load is a ubiquitous and sometimes dominant erosional mechanism for fluvial incision into bedrock. Here we develop a model for bedrock abrasion by saltating bed load wherein the wear rate depends linearly on the flux of impact kinetic energy normal to the bed and on the fraction of the bed that is not armored by transient deposits of alluvium. We assume that the extent of al...

[1] The role of bedrock fractures and rock mass strength is often considered a primary influence on the efficiency of surface processes and the morphology of landscapes. Quantifying bedrock characteristics at hillslope scales, however, has proven difficult. Here, we present a new field‐based method for quantifying the depth and apparent density of bedrock fractures within the shallow subsurface...