IMR Press / FBL / Volume 27 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2702042
Open Access Original Research
Quantitative analysis of ecological suitability and stability of meandering rivers
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1 State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, 100038 Beijing, China
2 Department of Water Ecology and Environment, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, 100038 Beijing, China
3 Department of hydraulic engineering, Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute, 475004 Kaifeng, Henan, China
4 Institute of Hydroecology, MWR & CAS, 430079 Wuhan, Hubei, China
*Correspondence: zhangjing@gmail.com (Jing Zhang)
Academic Editor: Kevin Cianfaglione
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2022, 27(2), 42; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbl2702042
Submitted: 15 July 2021 | Revised: 21 December 2021 | Accepted: 23 December 2021 | Published: 24 January 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: As the most widely distributed river form in the world, meandering river is of great significance for stabilizing the physical structure of the river and maintaining ecosystem. To quantitatively study the positive effects of meandering rivers, the Chishui River, a natural tributary of the Yangtze River in Southwest China, is selected as the research area, and two typical river sections with different meandering degrees are selected as the research objects. Methods: Based on the field survey data, the local endemic fish Procypris rabaudi (Tchang) is considered the object fish, and a hydrodynamic model was used to simulate the distribution of water depth and flow velocity in certain river reaches at different flows. By introducing the weighted usable area (WUA) and hydraulic unit diversity index, combined with the suitability curves of the study species, the hydraulic characteristics and habitat suitability changes of two river reaches under different flows are summarized and analyzed, and the hydrogeomorphological process of the studied river section is generalized. Results: With the change in discharge, a positive correlation is observed between the maximum velocity and depth of the meandering river and the discharge, whereas the WUA and hydraulic unit index of the meandering river have relatively small changes. Under low discharge, the distribution of pool–riffle sequences can be seen in the meandering reach, which is essential to improve the ecological suitability and stability of the river. Conclusions: This study provides scientific sustentation for river restoration and fish conservation.

Keywords
Meandering
River morphology
Weighted usable area
Hydraulic units
Ecological suitability
Figures
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