REU Site: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Stream Restoration Projects Based on Natural Channel Design Concepts Using Process-Based Investigations

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK

Investigators

Abstract

This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site will provide seven undergraduate students a research experience over a ten week period during the summers of 2015-2017. This REU site will generate important scientific discoveries in the rapidly expanding field of stream restoration, which has environmental and societal benefits of improving water quality, minimizing downstream flooding, and providing riparian and aquatic habitat. Participants will benefit from multi-disciplinary collaboration and experienced mentoring. Students will receive professional development training on ethics, responsible conduct of research, research writing, state-of-the-art equipment used in various disciplines, and career and graduate school opportunities. Results will be disseminated in publications/presentations at local, regional, and national meetings, through on-line videos, and also through interaction with society and community groups. Students for the program will be recruited from diverse groups. Oklahoma is also unique in that it is highly rural with a large percentage of Native Americans and first generation college students. The proposed REU program will recruit from these populations in combination with national recruitment. The research will include studies in hydrology, geosciences, and biology at the Cow Creek Stream Rehabilitation Site on the Oklahoma State University (OSU) campus. The opportunity to study streams at a site on a University campus recently rehabilitated is unique. The central theme of the program will be discussing ways to rehabilitate streams, and specifically evaluating natural channel design approaches through process-based investigations. Many current stream rehabilitation projects use natural channel design concepts, which are often criticized. The alternative is a complex, process-based analysis of the dynamic system and impact of stream modifications on the hydraulics, sediment transport, and biological community. This project hypothesizes that future restoration approaches will most likely resemble a morphed combination of natural channel design and process-based techniques. Students will participate in research projects quantifying the role of vegetation on streambank erosion, documenting the influence of in-stream structures on retention in the stream, evaluating the effect of sediment on fish, using aquatic macroinvertebrates to assess streambank modifications, evaluating plant diversity response, and studying vegetation impacts on stream temperature.