The 2008 survey used a Topcon Total Station where topography was emergent or wadeable and a Hummingbird Fishfinder (with GPS and depth sounder) in deeper water. Each dataset was digitized, georeferenced, and converted into Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs) (Freyer, 2013). Sources of error include instrumentation errors, interpolation errors, and datum conversions. As methods and data density were different between each survey, and comprehensive, quantitative error analysis could not be undertaken with the available data, elevation differences were rounded to the nearest 0.1 m. Baf-A1 nmr The area encompassed by TINs for all four surveys is 0.34 km2.

Though the first robust mapping of the Upper Mississippi River occurred in 1895, extensive land use changes and some in-channel navigational improvements in decades prior prevent the map from being a reference for natural channel conditions (Knox, Dasatinib manufacturer 1977, Knox, 1987 and Knox, 2001). Nonetheless, it forms a useful baseline against which to compare historical changes in land area and channel patterns. Since 1895, there have been substantial

shifts in whether land growth or loss has been dominant in the river, with the shifts coinciding with changes in river management (Fig. 3). Between 1895 and 1931, land area increased from 68% to 74% of the total area in P6 (Table 2). The increase in land area between 1895 and 1931 can be attributed to island amalgamation and backwater sedimentation associated with the numerous wing and closing dikes emergent during this period. By 1975, the first data available after the closure of Lock and Dam 6, land area decreased to 46% of the total area in P6. The 28% reduction in land area mostly occurred in isolated

backwaters located within the Trempealeau Refuge, and in LP6, where water levels rose most at dam closure. Since 1975, the percent of emergent land in P6 has changed little. In P6MC, land area increased from 44% to 54% between 1895 and 1931. The increase in land appears to have been attributable to sediment trapped by wing and closing dikes (Table 2). Between 1931 and 1975, land decreased to 29% of the area in P6MC. Since 1975, land has increased 1.03 km2. In both P6 and P6MC, the see more period of greatest land growth preceded construction of Lock and Dam 6, when wing and closing dikes exerted significant control over river hydraulics. In contrast, in the period between 1931 and 1975, which coincided with the construction of the Lock and Dam system, there was a high rate of land loss (Table 2). This loss was probably not evenly distributed across the period and likely coincided with the rise in pool levels associated with closure of Lock and Dam 6, rendering it even larger relative to changes in land area since 1975. The period since 1975 has been a time of relative geomorphic stability.