Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - 8:45 AM
200

A New Device for Quantifying Deposited Sediment in Streams

Andy W. Turner1, Jeff Hillis1, Charlie Rabeni1, and Randy Sarver2. (1) Fisheries and Wildlife, University of Missouri, 302 Anheuser Busch Natural Resources Bldg., Columbia, MO 65201, (2) Aquatic Bioassessment, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 176, Jefferson City, MO 65102

      Improvements and standardization of methodologies to quickly and accurately quantify deposited sediment in streams will allow advances in our understanding of biological effects of sedimentation. We developed a portable, light-weight device to quantify deposited unconsolidated sediment in streams.  The Deposited Sediment Sampler (DSS) is a hand-held unit that circumscribes an area of stream bottom and through suction creates a force that suspends unconsolidated materials into a collector.   Laboratory evaluations were made to determine the efficiency of the sampler to collect different sizes and concentrations of deposited sediment under differing channel substrate conditions.  The deposited sediment particle sizes tested were: silt (0-63 µm), fine sand (125-850 µm), and coarse sand (850 µm -1.4 mm). Relations between the amount of sediment available and amount recovered by the sampler allowed appropriate correction factors to be applied to 4 categories of channel substrate: gravel (>2-16 mm), small cobble (16-64 mm), large cobble (64-150 mm) and bedrock.  Thus, the sampler provides an accurate measure of sediment under different channel substrate conditions.  The sampler can be constructed in just a few hours from inexpensive, easily obtained materials. It also provides easy of use in the field and subsequent laboratory processing time is minimal. 

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