Natural gravel bed channels commonly contain a fine mode of sand and fine gravel that fills voids of the bed framework of coarser gravel. If the supply of fine bed material exceeds the storage capacity of framework voids, excess fine material forms surficial patches, which can be voluminous in pools during low flow. Data collected in 34 natural channels in northern California and southern Orego...

Median grain sizes on riverbeds range from boulders in uplands to silt in lowlands; however, rivers with ~1–5mm diameter bed sediment are rare. This grain size gap also marks an abrupt transition between graveland sand-bedded reaches that is unlike any other part of the fluvial network. Abrupt gravel-sand transitions have been attributed to rapid breakdown or rapid transport of fine gravel, or ...