Abstract
A common practice of stream restoration is to reconnect a stream with its natural floodplain. Floodplain reconnection is done to achieve such benefits as reduced flood stage, nutrient removal, sediment deposition, and protection of the natural stream channel topography. In order to measure nutrient removal and hydraulic storage in a reconnected floodplain, natural flood conditions can be simulated. An artificial flood was conducted over two consecutive days on a 50 meter reach of the Stroubles Creek floodplain, a 2nd-order stream near Blacksburg, VA. The first day consisted of a nutrient injection with sampling at regular intervals for multiple nutrient parameters at three cross-sections within the reach. The experiment also focused on modeling the exchange of groundwater and surface water by measuring water level, temperature, conductivity, and volumetric moisture content in soil on the surface and subsurface of the floodplain before, during, and after the flood experiment. The first day represented “dry” antecedent conditions and the second day represented “wet” antecedent conditions. This was the summer trial of the research project as we investigate seasonal variability in both nutrient transport and hydraulics. The results were analyzed as part of an ongoing investigation within the StREAM Lab at Virginia Tech.