Flood Seasons: Impact of seasonality shifts of flooding and ice on river dynamics

Sediment transport in rivers shape ecological and biogeochemical processes. Estimations of sediment transport are based on changes in flow magnitude (e.g., critical shear stress).

However, these methods fail to capture geomorphic processes in high-latitude rivers due to winter ice, which can cause geomorphic change or transport sediment equal to that of snowmelt floods.

Our understanding of the role of ice on streambank erosion and sediment transport is hampered by inherent difficulties of measuring sediment transport on ice and during ice break-up.

Furthermore, climate change will alter the ice regime (duration, cover, break-up type, timing), which will also likely affect sediment erosion and transport.We will use a cutting-edge technique of environmental seismology to constrain magnitudes and timing of ice-related sediment transport processes.

This new application of seismology enables us to process what was previously classified as ‘noise’ to measure geomorphic processes at finer spatial and temporal resolutions than previously possible.

We will instrument three study rivers spanning a climatic gradient in Sweden from Abisko to Umeå, to calibrate the seismic signature of various ice processes. The seismic signals will then be used to determine the role of different ice regimes on shaping sediment transport.

We will also use hydraulic models to predict changes in the ice regime in a warmer climate and how this will affect streambank erosion and sediment transport.