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1 Oxbow Lakes As Indicators of Geomorphic Change In OXBOW LAKES AS INDICATORS OF GEOMORPHIC CHANGE IN SOUTHEASTERN MISSISSIPPI By JAMES L. RASMUSSEN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 James L. Rasmussen 2 To the family, friends and teachers who sparked my interests and nurtured my dreams, this milestone would not be possible without their support and the inquisitive nature they instilled in me 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of many people. Guiding this adventure was my advisor Joann Mossa. Throughout it all, she patiently supported my research and teaching activities. I am very grateful for the field experiences she provided to me; they ultimately led to this work. I also want to thank my doctoral committee: Mike Binford, Mark Brenner and Pete Waylen. Without their example and instruction over the past eight years I would not be the Assistant Professor that I am today. Finally I want to thank the other faculty, staff and students at the University of Florida’s Geography Department; learning suffers in a vacuum and Florida Geography is fertile ground for the imagination. I have missed it dearly since I departed two years ago. All field-based research is fraught with difficulties but summer data collection on the forested floodplains of Mississippi is particularly trying. I was fortunate to have the support of The Pat Harrison Water Management District of southeastern Mississippi. Their help went far beyond logistical support and provided that vital local perspective that is crucial in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. I would also like to thank my field team of Justin Rose, Glenn Hermansen and Jon Rose. Over two summers they braved alligators, clouds of biting and stinging insects, poisonous snakes, lightning strikes and indescribably hot summer days; all on a floodplain overgrown with an invasive vine that often forced us to measure our rate of movement in meters per hour. Finally I want to thank my wife who was there every step of the way as I designed, planned, collected and compiled the research that follows in this dissertation. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 15 Oxbow Lakes as Indicators of River Channel Change ............................................ 15 Sinuosity and the Clustering of Alluvial Cutoffs ....................................................... 17 The Infilling of Oxbow Lakes ................................................................................... 18 2 OXBOW LAKES AS INDICATORS OF RIVER CHANNEL CHANGE .................... 20 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 20 Measuring River Channel Change ................................................................... 20 Factors Affecting River Channel Change in the Study Area ............................. 22 Regional Setting ..................................................................................................... 27 The Leaf River Basin ........................................................................................ 27 Land Use History .............................................................................................. 30 The Study Reach .............................................................................................. 31 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 33 Stream and Cutoff Cross Sections ................................................................... 33 Cutoff and Lake Age Estimates ........................................................................ 34 Lake Bed to Riverbed Elevation Changes ........................................................ 36 Results .................................................................................................................... 37 Channel Cross-Sectional Geometry Measurements ........................................ 37 Bed Elevation Measurements ........................................................................... 39 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 41 Changes in Channel Geometry ........................................................................ 41 Changes in Bed Elevation ................................................................................ 43 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 47 3 SINUOSITY AND THE CLUSTERING OF ALLUVIAL CUTOFFS .......................... 62 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 62 Problems of Scale and Time in Study .............................................................. 62 Meandering and Alluvial Cutoffs in a Dynamic System .................................... 63 Self-Organizing Systems, Thresholds, and Criticality ....................................... 68 Regional Setting ..................................................................................................... 70 5 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 72 Data Description and Origin ............................................................................. 72 Data Standards and Preparation ...................................................................... 73 Data Calculations ............................................................................................. 76 Results .................................................................................................................... 80 Alluvial Cutoffs .................................................................................................. 80 Channel Sinuosity ............................................................................................ 83 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 84 Alluvial Cutoffs and Clustering .......................................................................... 84 Sinuosity and Cutoff Clusters ........................................................................... 87 Self-Organized Criticality and Sinuosity Changes over Time ........................... 89 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 94 4 THE INFILLING OF OXBOW LAKES ................................................................... 114 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 114 Alluvial Cutoffs ................................................................................................ 114 Lake Sedimentation ........................................................................................ 117 Landform Longevity ........................................................................................ 120 Regional Setting ................................................................................................... 121 The Leaf and Chickasawhay Rivers of the Pascagoula Basin........................ 121 Detailed Field Study: Four Lakes ................................................................... 122 Materials and Methods.......................................................................................... 124 Lake Area and Perimeter Changes ................................................................ 124 Field Data Collection and Analysis ................................................................. 126 Lake Bathymetry Analysis .............................................................................. 131 Results and Discussion......................................................................................... 133 Alluvial Cutoffs and Oxbow Lakes .................................................................. 133 Stream Stage and Discharge ......................................................................... 136 Lake Surface Area Loss Over Time ............................................................... 138 Oxbow Lake Sedimentation: Core Results ..................................................... 142 Oxbow Lake Sedimentation: Lake Bathymetry ............................................... 144 The Effect of Connecting Channels between the River and Lake .................. 148 The Effect of Tributary Streams ...................................................................... 149 The Effect of Local Sources of Sediment ....................................................... 151 Final Thoughts on Oxbow Lake Sedimentation .............................................. 152 Conclusions .........................................................................................................
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