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Dendrohydrological Evidence of Flooding Along a Small Appalachian Stream
- Southeastern Geographer
- The University of North Carolina Press
- Volume 40, Number 2, November 2000
- pp. 151-167
- 10.1353/sgo.2000.0001
- Article
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Tree-ring records from flood-damaged trees have been most frequently used for reconstructing flood histories along large streams. Rarely has this approach been taken to gain hydrological information about small headwater channels. In this study, I analyze dendrohydrological evidence of flooding along two headwater streams in Virginia to determine its usefulness for hydrologic and geomorphic investigations of small, unmonitored watersheds. Easily obtained tree-ring dates for corrasion scars, adventitious sprouts and thin-ring sequences comprise the fundamental data set. The most noteworthy aspects of the data set are the youthfulness of most samples and a large corrasion scar peak in 1989. Elevations of corrasion scars above the channel bed indicate higher peak 1989 discharge than that expected based on field observations. These observations, coupled with hydrological monitoring data from closest stations and HEC-1 modeling results, emphasize the importance of wet antecedent conditions and repeated moderate events in scar creation. Earlier studies of lake sediment do not resolve sediment yield from year-1989 flooding, and average sediment yield was generally low at this time. Geomorphic work accomplished and/or sediment delivery may have been lower during 1989 than those associated with the Hurricane Agnes event in 1972. Although botanical flood evidence from small streams, and in particular corrasion scarring, are demonstrated to be useful for some hydrologic analyses, their use in reconstructing flood chronology is limited to recent decades by rapid tree healing.