Effects of Ditch Cleaning on Total Suspended Sediments

Understanding the consequences of traditional management of ditches is important for improving our forestry practices, particularly how clearcutting and ditch network maintenance (DNM) affect suspended solids draining these management actions. In addition to coordinating research at Trollberget, have monitored total suspended solids (TSS) since 2018 in all the study catchments. I combine these single grab samples with turbidity data taken at 15-minute intervals to understand how the TSS export changes in between sampling, especially with high flows.

Additionally, in collaboration with Lenka Kuglerová, I study the effect of narrow (5m) and wide (15m) riparian buffers on the stream and riparian functions that the Swedish Strategic Objectives (målbilder) outline. Namely, we study erosion/sediment transport, deadwood recruitment (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-022-01793-1), leaf litter deposition, light/shading, nutrient cycling in the riparian zone, and diversity of functional groups of understory species.