Geology, surface hydrology, and fish habitat relationships in the upper Shavers Fork drainage basin, West Virginia

Shavers Fork is the mainstem stream of a unique upper elevation watershed located in the Appalachian Plateaus province of West Virginia. Surficial “facies” mapping of in-stream and floodplain-adjacent landforms helped to classify small-scale flow patterns into heterogeneous and homogeneous channel units. Channel-unit bankfull width, channel-unit length, channel-unit area, and channel-unit depth all increase in the downstream direction. Riffles constitute 32 percent of the total channel unit area, riffle-run complexes and glides make up 26 percent each, bluff-pool complexes constitute 7 percent, riffle-glide complexes 6 percent, and true pools make up only 2 percent. Upper reaches contain the most in-stream and riparian heterogeneity and the highest relative abundance of large woody debris (LWD).; In-stream heterogeneity dominates pools and channel-unit complexes, which comprise 69 percent of the total stream area. In-stream homogeneity dominates riffles and glides which constitute 31 percent of the total stream area.