Late Quaternary controls on sediment dynamics and yield in paraglacial landscapes : a spatially and temporally nested approach
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Geography, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Turley, Mike
issued: 2025-02-20T18:10:02Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: It is becoming increasingly important to understand how mountain regions will respond to accelerated glacier retreat and land use changes. Long-term records that capture the inherent variability of these systems and document past landscape responses and recovery from glaciation are essential for contextualizing contemporary changes and enabling future predictions. Sediment storage landforms are useful archives of past landscape response and are important for linking onsite erosion to sediment yield at the outlet. This thesis employs a spatially and temporally nested approach to provide a long-term record of sediment dynamics and yield while linking insights across different scales. In particular, we investigate Holocene sediment dynamics, focusing on the controls, variability, and interactions of sediment supply, storage, and yield in glacierized mountain catchments. First, we construct a contemporary bed material sediment budget for the 94 km² Fitzsimmons Creek watershed using field surveys, net-change lidar analysis, and geomorphic mapping. Active channel, floodplain, and landslide sources each contributed roughly one-third of the total sediment yield at the outlet. Historical sediment yield, quantified through field surveys and air photo analysis, varied by a factor of 17 over 76 years, driven primarily by a large landslide-flood event and gravel extraction activities. Second, we explore the inter- and intra-catchment variability in sediment dynamics for tributaries of the 875 km² Green River watershed throughout the Holocene. We approach this through geomorphic mapping, geochronology, postglacial erosion and storage estimates, and longitudinal analyses of channel and valley characteristics. We propose a conceptual model linking geology, glacial history, and postglacial history as controls on sediment dynamics, explaining the observed longitudinal patterns in postglacial mountain watersheds. Finally, we synthesize the Holocene history of the 3,765 km² Lillooet Ri…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/90398
note: Late Quaternary controls on sediment dynamics and yield in paraglacial landscapes: A spatially and temporally nested approach by Mike Turley BSc, Utah State University, 2018 MSc, University of British Columbia, 2020 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) February 2025 © Mike Turley, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Late Quaternary controls on sediment dynamics and yield in paraglacial landscapes: A spatially and temporally nested approach submitted by Mike Turley in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography Examining Committee: Marwan Hassan, Professor, Geography, UBC Supervisor Olav Lian, Professor, Geoscience, University of the Fraser Valley Supervisory Committee Member Andre Zimmermann, Adjunct Professor, Geography, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Andrew Martindale, Professor, Anthropology, UBC University Examiner John Innes, Professor, Forestry, UBC University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Ian McKendry, Professor Emeritus, Geography, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract It is becoming increasingly important to understand how mountain regions will respond to accelerated glacier retreat and land use changes. Long-term records that capture the inherent variability of these systems and document past landscape responses and recovery from glaciation are essential for contextualizing contemporary changes and enabling future predictions. Sediment storage landforms are useful archives of past landscape response and are important for linking onsite erosion to sediment yield at the outlet. This thesis employs a spatially and temporally nested approach to provide a long-term record of sedi…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448110
language: eng
degree discipline: Geography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hassan, Marwan A.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90398