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Dryad

Data from: Reach-scale geomorphic characteristics influencing post-fire river response in mountain streams, Colorado, USA

Data files

Aug 06, 2024 version files 24.75 KB

Abstract

Numerous 3rd-order mountain catchments within the Cache la Poudre (Poudre) River basin in the Colorado Front Range, USA burned severely and extensively during the 2020 Cameron Peak fire. Many of these catchments experienced debris flows and flash floods triggered by convective storms after the fire. The downstream effects of the debris flow sediment varied along a continuum from attenuated and largely contained within the catchment, through contributing to a pre-existing debris fan at the catchment outlet, to releasing substantial volumes of water and sediment to the Poudre River. We conducted longitudinally continuous surveys within seven of these catchments to measure reach-scale characteristics. These characteristics quantify the reach-scale geomorphic, vegetation, and burn characteristics, with a particular focus on elements that introduce inter- and intra-reach spatial heterogeneity including channel planform, beaver modified topography, the distribution of channel and floodplain logjam distribution density, and the floodplain width/channel width ratio for the population of reaches within each catchment.