Laserfiche WebLink
DRA,Fr Febmary 25, 1998 <br />1993). The PRM indicate that high discharges are responsible for the construction of the <br />spawning bar but not the actual formation of the spawning habitat. Downstream hydraulic <br />controls cause a backwater condition that results in the formation of the bar as a <br />heterogenous mass of sediments are deposited. Reduced tailwater during recessional <br />flows causes a steepening of the local hydraulic gradient, which in turn leads to bar <br />dissection and erosion of chute channels. Dissection of the bar causes the fines to be <br />flushed and this is enhanced by reduced sediment delivery from upstream due to <br />deposition in the upstream pool. A clean cobble substrate, with the constituent cobbles at <br />incipient motion, and suitable for egg adhesion, is formed in the subaqueous tertiary bars <br />that are located within the chute channels. <br />The downstream hydraulic control for the spawning bar is formed by two coarse grained <br />and horizontally-opposed alluvial fans that have prograded into the channel to form a <br />constriction in a relatively wide valley segment of the Green River. Hydraulic analysis of <br />the reach indicated that two of the three mid-channel bars located in the middle and left <br />branch channels meet the PRM criteria for squawfish spawning habitat; gravels and <br />cobbles that constitute the mid-channel bars attain a condition of incipient motion, and <br />therefore, meet a criterion of the PRM. <br />• In common with other rivers draining the Colorado Plateau (Webb and others, 1988) the <br />vast majority of rapids (95 percent), and hence channel constrictions, are the result of <br />tributary alluvial fans that prograde out into the channel. Although the identified site meet <br />PRM criteria it should be recognized that other factors may also be involved in <br />determining spawning habitat. <br />Available data do not indicate that construction of Flaming Gorge Reservoir has caused a <br />reduction in the alluvial fan constriction ratios at this site. The peak flow record <br />immediately before and after construction of Flaming Gorge Reservoir has been very <br />similar. <br />Harvey, M.D., R.A. Mussetter, and E.J. Wick. 1993. A Physical Process-biological <br />Response Model for Spawning Habitat Formation for the Endangered Colorado <br />Squawfish. Rivers, v. 4, n. 2, p. 114 -131. <br />A three-level, physical process-biological response model for spawning habitat formation <br />was developed from field measurements, hydraulic modeling (IBC-2), and analysis of a <br />known spawning bar at River Mile (RM) 16.5 in the Yampa River. Sediment deposition <br />and bar formation occur at discharges greater than 10,000 W/s, a discharge at which <br />downstream hydraulic controls cause backwater and reduced transport capacity of the <br />flows. Spawning habitat is formed by bar dissection and erosion at a range of flows <br />between 400 and 5,000 ft /s when the local hydraulic energy is greatest because of <br />23