Interplay between grain protrusion and sediment entrainment in an experimental flume

Bed load sediment transport is typically formulated as a nonlinear function of the shear stress exerted on the bed in excess of a critical value. However, due to the inherent spatial variability in grain packing and protrusion on water-worked beds, the critical stress used in transport models represents a spatial averaging of the critical entrainment stresses of many individual particles on the bed. We perform a series of flume experiments in which we quantify, for the first time, the evolution of topography on the particle scale during low-flow periods. We link this topography to subsequent bed load sediment transport rates and explore implications for particle critical stresses. We exploit the observed dependence of bed load flux on antecedent low-flow duration to isolate the relationship between grain protrusion and bed load flux over a wide array of transport rates at the same applied stress. A synthesis of high-resolution bed topography surveys and bed load flux data show that bed load transport rates characteristic of gravel channels are governed by the portion of grains that protrude highest above the bed and that this portion corresponds to ~1–5% of the total bed elevation distribution in our experiments. This result supports the argument that only a small portion of grain entrainment thresholds for a riverbed is exceeded during transport. Further, these results emphasize that subtle changes in bed topography can have dramatic effects on bed load sediment transport. We also find that transport of these highest protruding particles enhances the local erosion of surrounding grains.