A collaborative project is being conducted in North Dakota to develop riparian complex ecological site descriptions (RCESDs) and state-and-transition models (STMs). A STM for a riparian ecosystem is comprised of three states: 1) the stable potential channels, 2) the unstable channels, and 3) the confined stable channels. Data has been collected on forty-one cross-sections along eight different streams within three major land resource areas using Rosgen's classification of natural rivers. A cluster analysis was conducted from which it was determined that four clusters resulted in the strongest groupings. An indicator analysis was conducted to determine the significant hydrogeomorphic factors driving each group. The strongest factor influencing the groups was entrenchment ratio (ER) (P?0.05). According to Rosgen's classification system ER has the greatest influence on channel morphology. Width-to-depth ratio (WDR) and sinuosity also had a significant influence on the groupings (P?0.05). Within a riparian STM change in ER indicates that a transition between states is taking place; whereas, changes in WDR and sinuosity are responses to a state change and are indicative of phase changes occurring within a state. The findings of this analysis support the concepts being developed for RCESDs and STMs.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.