ANALYSIS OF SURFACE BED SEDIMENT AND DEPTH BED SEDIMENT PROFILE IN GLACIAL TILL AND ANTHROPOGENICALLY ALTERED STREAMS IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO

Streambed sediment size variations are directly related to the sediment input source and the stream’s competence. Sediment inputs to streams flowing through glacially impacted sediments will vary in size distribution due to the random mixing of glacial till deposits. Streams flowing through strip-mined areas are subjected to a similar assortment of grain sizes and will also experience irregular grain size inputs. We therefore hypothesize that the streambed sediment in these two environments will exhibit similar patterns. The purpose of this study is to investigate the similarities and differences in streambed grain size distributions of surface samples and vertical cores between an anthropogenically altered stream and a glacially impacted stream. We chose two streams for this study: HR25, a mining-impacted subwatershed of Huff Run near Mineral City, Ohio and an unnamed stream in Jennings Woods, a research forest of Kent State University in a formerly glaciated region of Ohio. The two streams each drain approximately the same size watershed. We chose two reaches in HR25 and one reach in Jennings Woods. We extracted one core from each site and collected two surface samples at the upstream and downstream ends of each measured reach. We sifted all samples into coarse and fine sizes and analyzed with a Retsch Camsizer. Analysis of the surface grab samples showed Jennings Woods has a wider grain size distribution than either HR25 reach. The core data showed the Jennings Woods core contained a similar grain size distribution to a depth of 32 cm. This contrasted with the HR25-B core, which showed the percentage of fine grains decreased with increasing depth. We conclude that the Jennings Woods bed sediment contains a consistent grain size distribution due to the input of sediment from well-mixed, poorly sorted glacial till and the HR25 stream does not follow similar patterns to this stream.