Tanner Lambert successfully defends M.S.! Congrats Tanner!

Congratulations to Tanner Lambert on a successful defense of his M.S. thesis last week! Tanner's thesis is entitled Streambank stabilization effects on point bar accretion and phosphorus storage. His project combined field, laboratory, and GIS work to compare rates of horizontal and lateral sediment accretion (and sediment-associated P storage) on river bends with and without bank stabilization structures. While the results varied among the six bends he studied, a key finding was that sediment and P accretion happened on all point bars, regardless of whether stabilization structures were present. Deposition volume and P mass were generally greater on unstabilized bends though, supporting the hypothesis that bank stabilization structures reduce not only bank erosion rates (and consequently P inputs from erosion) but also deposition rates (and associated P sequestration). A key implication is that nutrient reduction and trading programs will need to consider both erosion and deposition when assigning value to interventions aimed at reducing non-point P inputs. Way to go Tanner!