M. Williams, Dane Gaiser, Luke A. Stevens, Danielle Stewart, Adrienne Williams
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this investigation information was collected regarding the habitat condition, channel profile, and stream discharge of key waterways within the Piney Creek Watershed in vicinity of Beckley, Raleigh County, West Virginia. Piney Creek is a major tributary that flows into the New River within the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. To establish robust and sustainable ongoing stream monitoring, West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech), Beckley Sanitary Board (BSB) and Piney Creek Watershed Association (PCWA) partnered in conducting stream habitat assessments at key sites within the watershed utilizing the guidelines provided by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Save Our Streams initiative. Additionally, the organizations developed standard operating procedures for calculating flow and discharge utilizing low-cost, easy-to-perform float gauging methodology. In total, 21 sites from five named streams (Beaver Creek, Cranberry Creek, Little Whitestick Creek, Whitestick Creek, and Piney Creek) and seven unnamed streams were selected and assessed for channel width and depth, velocity, discharge, sediment deposition, embeddedness, bank stability, riparian buffer, and stream bed composition. Streambed composition and discharge showed variability among the subwatershed sites. Nine site habitat scores received overall habitat scores of “suboptimal”, while ten were scored as “marginal” and two as “poor” stream habitat. Lack of riparian buffer was found to be the most frequent habitat score deficiency in the Piney Creek Watershed, with 18 out of the 42 total stream banks receiving a score of “poor” in this category. Characterization of the watershed is important for establishing baseline information as well as identifying important sites for future research and execution of improvement projects. This study defines an area that could serve as an accessible research resource and model watershed.
在这项调查中,收集了有关西弗吉尼亚州罗利县贝克利附近的皮尼溪流域主要水道的栖息地条件、河道剖面和流量的信息。松树溪是一条主要的支流,流入新河峡谷国家公园和保护区内的新河。为了建立健全和可持续的河流监测,西弗吉尼亚大学理工学院(WVU Tech)、贝克利卫生委员会(BSB)和派尼溪流域协会(PCWA)合作,利用西弗吉尼亚环境保护部“拯救我们的河流”倡议提供的指导方针,在流域内的关键地点进行了河流栖息地评估。此外,各组织还开发了使用低成本、易于执行的浮子测量方法计算流量和排放量的标准操作程序。从5条命名的河流(Beaver Creek, Cranberry Creek, Little whitstick Creek, whitstick Creek和Piney Creek)和7条未命名的河流中选择了21个地点,并对河道宽度和深度、流速、流量、沉积物沉积、嵌入性、河岸稳定性、河岸缓冲和河床组成进行了评估。河床组成和流量在各小流域间表现出差异。9个站点的栖息地得分为“次优”,10个为“边缘”,2个为“差”的溪流栖息地。在Piney Creek流域,缺乏河岸缓冲被发现是最常见的栖息地得分不足,42个河岸中有18个在这一类别中得分为“差”。分水岭的特征对于建立基线信息以及确定未来研究和执行改善项目的重要地点非常重要。本研究定义了一个区域,可以作为一个可访问的研究资源和模型分水岭。