Riverine Habitat Dynamics

The CERC Eco-flume is a continuous-loop, racetrack style flume. It is housed in a 1,350 square-foot laboratory at CERC and will be used to study transport phenomena and biophysical processes in river environments.

Freshwater mussel conservation efforts depend on identifying habitat characteristics that are suitable for mussel reintroduction and restoration. CERC scientists are conducting research to understand how physical habitat dynamics affect the distribution of mussels and suitable habitat in streams and rivers.

Reconnection of floodplains to their rivers has been considered a fundamentally beneficial ecological practice.

River-Corridor Habitat Dynamics research seeks to improve the scientific basis for ecological restoration of large rivers. Emphasis is placed on understanding how hydrologic and geomorphic characteristics combine to create dynamic habitats for native and exotic fauna and flora.

Habitats of many rivers of the US are perceived to be degraded as a result of human-induced stresses. CERC scientist are focusing physical habitat as measured by depth, velocity, and substrate, in order to establish relevance of physical habitat to biota.

The two mainstem Missouri River segments of the Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR) represent some of the least altered channel form and most complex physical habitat on the Missouri River. The 39-mile segment is located in an inter-reservoir reach between Fort Randall Dam and Lewis and Clark Lake and the 59-mile segment is located below Gavins Point Dam, the downstream-most water control...

This project seeks to develop tools and datasets that provide insights to the common ground between flood-risk reduction and ecosystem services on large-river floodplains of the Central United States. Floodplains of large rivers are valued for their agricultural productivity and development potential, but recent floods have demonstrated the high costs and lack of resiliency when floodplains are...