SBR-9508137 Carol P. Harden Phillip Daniel Royall University of Tennessee Dissertation Improvement Research: Lake-Catchment Based Evaluation of Medium-Term Sediment Yield and Sediment Dynamics From the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia Patterns of sediment yield even in small watersheds reflect complex and poorly understood processes of temporary and long-term sediment storage. These processes are related to the size and associated frequency of occurrence of runoff events and to past watershed disturbance. For this study lake sediment cores are used to provide sediment yield estimates over a 33-year period from an ungauged watershed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Variations in sediment yield through time will be compared with meteorological, dendrochronological, and watershed disturbance records. The lengthened analytical timescale makes possible a new and very relevant perspective on the nature of erosionally dominant runoff events, sediment storage dynamics, and the impacts of former landuse on sediment yield. The results of the study will serve to further the goal of understanding physical landscape evolution at the more holistic ecosystem level.
