Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Wildlife and Fisheries Resources

Committee Chair

J. Steven Kite.

Abstract

Shavers Fork is the mainstem stream of a unique upper elevation watershed located in the Appalachian Plateaus province of West Virginia. Surficial "facies" mapping of in-stream and floodplain-adjacent landforms helped to classify small-scale flow patterns into heterogeneous and homogeneous channel units. Channel-unit bankfull width, channel-unit length, channel-unit area, and channel-unit depth all increase in the downstream direction. Riffles constitute 32 percent of the total channel unit area, riffle-run complexes and glides make up 26 percent each, bluff-pool complexes constitute 7 percent, riffle-glide complexes 6 percent, and true pools make up only 2 percent. Upper reaches contain the most in-stream and riparian heterogeneity and the highest relative abundance of large woody debris (LWD).;In-stream heterogeneity dominates pools and channel-unit complexes, which comprise 69 percent of the total stream area. In-stream homogeneity dominates riffles and glides which constitute 31 percent of the total stream area.

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