DOI: 10.5061/dryad.573n5tbmd
title: Data from: Large wood decay state and piece shape in river corridors

description: We characterize the decay and piece shape categories of downed large wood
 in channels and floodplains of 7 river corridors in Colorado, Montana,
 North Carolina, and Utah to evaluate how proportions of wood in these
 categories varied with respect to location (channel, floodplain),
 disturbance history, wood recruitment (fluvial transport, tree fall), and
 biome. We hypothesized that decay state and piece shape would differ more
 between floodplain and channel locations in river corridors with no recent
 inundation-related large wood transport on the floodplain than in river
 corridors with recent floodplain inundation. Results support our
 hypothesis with respect to decay but not piece shape. Decay state differs
 more between floodplain and channel locations in river corridors with no
 recent disturbance. These results suggest the benefits of retaining and
 reintroducing decayed wood in floodplains.
description: At each site, we characterized at least 100 pieces of downed,
 dead wood within the river corridor. We characterized each piece with
 respect to location (active channel, floodplain), mode of recruitment to
 the river corridor (fluvial transport, treefall), decay state (5
 categories, after Robison and Beschta, 1990 and Waddell, 2002), piece
 shape (4 categories in a classification developed for this study), and
 length and diameter. The individuals who assigned decay and shape
 categories agreed on characteristics during an initial field visit and
 used photographs of example pieces in each category from the first field
 site for calibration at field sites visited subsequently. Although conifer
 forests of Colorado and Montana are unlikely to have major branches on
 most wood pieces, we included major branches as a category to facilitate
 use of this ranking in forests with substantial numbers of deciduous
 trees, such as the Utah and North Carolina sites. We delineated floodplain
 boundaries based on changes in vegetation between the floodplain and
 adjacent uplands; breaks in slope and elevation above the active channel;
 highwater marks, if present; and fluvial erosional and depositional
 features. We inferred mode of recruitment based on presence of a partially
 anchored root mass or proximity to a shattered tree trunk or a decayed
 stump for treefall, as well as orientation with respect to flow direction
 (multiple parallel pieces in close proximity indicated fluvial transport).
 Fluvially transported pieces do not include pieces recruited through
 debris flows or landslides, which are not present at the study sites. Tree
 fall pieces resulted from tree mortality, blowdowns, and bank erosion. We
 used a handheld GPS (Garmin eTrex, + 3 m horizonal
 accuracy) to locate each piece of wood and to map the edges of the active
 channel. Robison EG, Beschta RL. 1990. Characteristics
 of coarse woody debris for several coastal streams of southeast Alaska,
 USA. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 47, 1684-1693.
 https://doi.org/10.1139/f90-193 Waddell KL. 2002. Sampling coarse woody debris for multiple attributes in extensive resource inventories. Ecological Indicators 1, 129-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-160X(01)00012-7
description: # Data from: Large wood decay state and piece shape in river corridors
 Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.573n5tbmd](10.5061/dryad.573n5tbmd) ##
 Description of the data and file structure Data contain information on
 individual pieces of large wood (&gt; 1 m in length and 10 cm in diameter)
 from 7 river corridors (channels and floodplains) in Colorado, Montana,
 North Carolina, and Utah. These were collected in an effort to describe
 the diversity of decay states and piece shapes. Decaying wood provides
 habitat and nutrients for diverse organisms as well as subsidies to
 floodplain soils.  ### Files and variables #### File: decay_key.csv
 **Description:** Key describing variables, units, and format of data ####
 File: decay.csv **Description:** Data used in the analyses associated with
 publication