Following the Bend: How to Read a River and Understand Its Nature

Colorado State University geoscience professor Wohl (Dead Wood) mixes personal experience and science for an impassioned guide to interpreting rivers. She notes that rivers cycle water throughout the planet and are vibrant ecosystems that house unique plant and animal species. Scientists study rivers three-dimensionally, she explains: longitudinally (the upstream-downstream path), laterally (between the channel and floodplain), and vertically (their depths). All three are important. For example, sideways and vertical movements in a river channel create internal patterns that “control the microbial communities that power channel and floodplain food webs.” Elsewhere, Wohl details how studying the types of plants growing along a river channel can provide a history of the height of its flows; delves into the significance of atmospheric rivers, masses of water vapor in the lower atmosphere that can transport even more water than the Amazon; and explores the impact of the smallest river channels, elucidating why “small in size does not equate to unimportant.” Throughout, she weaves in her personal experience with rivers, from her fascination with them as a child to her endeavors as a researcher. Her accessible scientific explanations alternate with lyrical passages that pack an emotional punch (“A river is a world, the world, and eternity”). Readers will see these waterways in a new light. (Sept.)