Field measurements for characterizing salmon spawning habitat in two restored reaches of the lower Merced River, California
Dates
Acquisition
2016
Publication Date
2019-10-25
Citation
Legleiter, C.J., and Harrison, L.R., 2019, Field measurements for characterizing salmon spawning habitat in two restored reaches of the lower Merced River, California: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P99CWIDL.
Summary
To support an investigation of the effectiveness of a large-scale river restoration project, several types of field data were collected from two gravel-bed reaches of the regulated lower Merced River in California's Central Valley, primarily in the fall of 2016. These data sets were intended to characterize salmon spawning habitat and identify factors influencing spawning site selection. This parent data release includes links to child pages for the following data sets: 1) Bulk samples of streambed sediment used to characterize the subsurface grain size distribution. 2) Pebble counts used to characterize the sediment grain size distribution of the bed surface. 3) Force gage measurements used to parameterize a force balance model [...]
Summary
To support an investigation of the effectiveness of a large-scale river restoration project, several types of field data were collected from two gravel-bed reaches of the regulated lower Merced River in California's Central Valley, primarily in the fall of 2016. These data sets were intended to characterize salmon spawning habitat and identify factors influencing spawning site selection. This parent data release includes links to child pages for the following data sets:
1) Bulk samples of streambed sediment used to characterize the subsurface grain size distribution.
2) Pebble counts used to characterize the sediment grain size distribution of the bed surface.
3) Force gage measurements used to parameterize a force balance model for the initation of sediment motion and thus characterize bed mobility.
4) Measurements of saturated hydraulic conductivity used to characterize the permeability of the streambed.
5) Surveys of channel and floodplain topography used to characterize the morphology and parameterize a hydraulic model.
6) Mapped locations of salmon spawning activity used to characterize habitat use.
Please refer to the individual child pages for further detail about each data set. Overall, these data were used to evaluate the performance of a large-scale river restoration project on the lower Merced River.
Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.
Related External Resources
Type: Related Primary Publication
Harrison, L. R., Bray, E., Overstreet, B., Legleiter, C., Brown, R. A., Merz, J. E., et al. ( 2019). Physical controls on salmon redd site selection in restored reaches of a regulated, gravel‐bed river. Water Resources Research, 55, 8942– 8966. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024428
For questions concerning this data set, please contact:
Dr. Carl J. Legleiter - cjl@usgs.gov, 303-271-3651
Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory
United States Geological Survey
4620 Technology Drive, Suite #400
Golden, CO 80403
Purpose
The various data sets comprising this data release were used to evaluate the extent to which two large-scale restoration projects provided improved salmon spawning habitat on the lower Merced River in California. A related goal of this study was to improve our understanding of the geomorphic factors influencing spawning site selection by salmon.
Rights
Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
