Publications

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Peer-Reviewed:

Salter, G., Topping, D.J., Wang, J., Schmidt, J.C., Yackulic, C.B., Bair, L.S., Mueller, E.R., and Grams, P.E. (2025) Reservoir Operational Strategies for Sustainable Sand Management in the Colorado River. Water Resources Research, 61, e2024WR038315, doi: 10.1029/ 2024WR038315.

Grams, P.E., Topping, D.J., Salter, G., Chapman, K.A., Tusso, R.B., and Mueller, E.R. (2025) Implementation of Controlled Floods for Sediment Management on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon Under Aridification. River Research and Applications, 41(2), 334-348, doi: 10.1002/rra.4374.

Joerger, S.T., Smith, M.E., Buscombe, D., and Mueller, E.R. (2024) Evidence for littoral convergence and sediment delivery to Mattole submarine canyon, Northern California.  Frontiers in Earth Sciences, 12: 1377997, doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1377997.

Kemper, J.T., Rathburn, S.L., Mueller, E.R. Wohl, E., and Scamardo, J. (2023) Geomorphic response of low-gradient, meandering and braided alluvial river channels to increased sediment supply. Earth-Science Reviews, 241, 104429, doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104429.

Mueller, E.R., Sudweeks, G.P., Ashton, S.A., and Olson, M.C. (2023) Snow drought and monsoon floods: Hydrological extremes in the Cedar Valley watershed during water year 2021, Southwestern Utah. Geology of the Intermountain West, 10, 93–111, doi: 10.31711/giw.v10.pp93-111.

Hazel, J.E. Jr., Kaplinski, M., Hamill, D., Buscombe, D., Mueller, E.R., Ross, R.P., Kohl, K., and Grams, P.E. (2022) Multi-decadal sandbar response to flow management downstream from a large dam – The Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in Marble and Grand Canyons, Arizona. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 1873, 104 pp., doi: 10.3133/pp1873.

Grams, P.E., Head, E., and Mueller, E.R. (2022) Effects of flow regulation and drought on geomorphology and floodplain habitat along the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. River Research and Applications, 38(7): 1266-1276, doi: 10.1002/rra.4014.

Kemper, J.T., Rathburn, S.L., Friedman, J.M., Nelson, J.M, Mueller, E.R., and Vincent, K.R. (2022) Fingerprinting historical tributary contributions to floodplain sediment using bulk geochemistry. Catena, 214: 106231, doi: 10.1016/j.catena.2022.106231.

Kemper, J.T., Thaxton, R.D., Rathburn, S.L., Freidman, J.M., Mueller, E.R., and Scott, M.L. (2021) Sediment-ecological connectivity in a large river network. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 47(2), 639-657, doi: 10.1002/esp.5277.

Mueller, E.R. and Grams, P.E. (2021) A morphodynamic model to evaluate long-term sandbar rebuilding using controlled floods in the Grand Canyon. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL093007, doi: 10.1029/2021GL093007.

Sabol, T.A., Griffiths, R.E., Topping, D.J., Mueller, E.R., Tusso, R.B., and Hazel Jr., J.E. (2021) Strandlines from large floods on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5048, 41 pp., doi: 10.3133/sir20215048.

Chapman, K.A., Best, R.J.,  Smith, M.E., Mueller, E.R., Grams, P.E., and Parnell, R.A. (2021) Estimating the contribution of tributary sand inputs to controlled flood deposits for sandbar restoration using elemental tracers, Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 133(5-6), 1141–1156, doi: 10.1130/B35642.1.

Lima, R., Buscombe, D., Sankey, T., Grams, P., and Mueller E. (2019) Using oblique imagery to measure hypsometric changes in sandbar volume following controlled floods in the Grand Canyon. Proceedings of SEDHYD 2019, Conferences on Sedimentation and Hydrologic Modeling, June 24-28, 2019, Reno, Nevada, USA, 15pp.

Topping, D.J., Mueller, E.R., Schmidt, J.C., Griffiths, R., Dean, D.J., Grams, P.E. (2018) Long-term evolution of sand transport through a river network: relative influences of a dam versus natural changes in grain size from sand waves. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 123(8), 1879-1909, doi: 10.1029/2017JF004534.

Smith, M.E., Werner, S.H., Buscombe, D., Finnegan, N.J., Sumner, E.J., and Mueller, E.R. (2018) Seeking the shore: Evidence for active submarine canyon head incision due to coarse sediment supply and focusing of wave energy. Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2018GL080396.

Mueller, E.R., Grams, P.E., Hazel, J.E. Jr., and Schmidt, J.C. (2018) Variability in eddy sandbar dynamics during two decades of controlled flooding of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Invited review for Sedimentary Geology, 363, 181-199, doi: 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2017.11.007.

Smith, M.E., Finnegan, N.J., Mueller, E.R., and Best, R.J. (2017) Durable terrestrial bedrock predicts submarine canyon formation. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(20), 10,332-10,340, doi: 10.1002/2017GL075139.

**Highlighted in Science: “Sorting out submarine canyons” doi:10.1126/science.358.6361.317-d

Sankey, J.B., Kreitler, J., Hawbaker, T.J., McVay, J.L., Miller, M.E., Mueller, E.R., Vaillant, N.M., Lowe, S.E., and Sankey, T.T. (2017), Climate, wildfire, and erosion ensemble foretells more sediment in western USA watersheds, Geophysical Research Letters, 44(17), 8884-8892, doi: 10.1002/2017GL073979.

Mueller, E.R., Schmidt, J.C., Topping, D.J., Shafroth, P.B., Rodríguez-Burgueño, J.E., Ramírez-Hernández, J., and Grams, P.E. (2016) Geomorphic change and sediment transport during a small artificial flood in a transformed post-dam delta: The Colorado River delta, United States and Mexico. Ecological Engineering, 106(Part B), 757-755, doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.08.009.

Mueller, E.R., Smith, M.E., and Pitlick, J. (2016) Lithology-controlled evolution of stream bed sediment and basin-scale sediment yields in adjacent mountain watersheds, Idaho, USA. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 41(13), 1869-1883, doi: 10.1002/esp.3955.

Mueller, E.R., Schmidt, J.C., Topping, D.J., and Grams, P.E. (2015) Geomorphic change in the limitrophe reach of the Colorado River in response to the 2014 delta pulse flow, United States and Mexico. Proceedings of SEDHYD 2015, Conferences on Sedimentation and Hydrologic Modeling, April 19-23, 2015, Reno, Nevada, USA, p. 1501-1512.

Mueller, E.R. and Pitlick, J. (2014) Sediment supply and channel morphology in mountain river systems: 2. Controls on single-thread to braided transitions. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 119(7), 1516-1541, doi: 10.1002/2013JF003045.

Mueller, E.R., Grams, P.E., Schmidt, J.C., Alexander, J.S., Hazel Jr., J.E., and Kaplinski, M. (2014) The influence of controlled floods on fine sediment storage in debris fan affected canyons of the Colorado River basin. Geomorphology, 226, 65-75, doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.07.029.

Mueller, E.R., Grams, P.E., Schmidt, J.C., Hazel Jr., J.E., Kaplinksi, M., Alexander, J.S., and Kohl, K. (2014) Monitoring and research to describe geomorphic effects of the 2011 high flows on the Green River in Canyon of Lodore, Dinosaur National Monument. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5022, 66 pp., doi:10.3133/sir20145022.

Mueller, E.R. and Pitlick, J. (2013) Sediment supply and channel morphology in mountain river systems: 1. Relative importance of lithology, topography, and climate. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 118(4), 2325-2342, doi: 10.1002/2013JF002843.

**Editor selection as an AGU Research Spotlight in EOS: “Tying bulk watershed properties to mountain river channel evolution”

Pitlick, J., Mueller, E.R., and Segura, C. (2012) Differences in sediment supply to braided and single-thread channels: what do the data tell us? Chapter 35 in Gravel-bed Rivers: Processes, Tools, Environments, Church, M., Biron, P.M., and Roy, A. Eds. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK, doi: 10.1002/9781119952497.ch35.

Smith, M.E., Carroll, A.R., and Mueller, E.R. (2008) Elevated weathering rates in the Rocky Mountains during the early Eocene climatic optimum, Nature-Geoscience, 1, 370-374, doi:10.1038/ngeo205.

Pitlick, J., Mueller, E.R., Segura, C., Cress, R., and Torizzo, M. (2008) Relation between flow, surface-layer armoring, and sediment transport in gravel-bed rivers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 33, 1192-1209, doi: 10.1002/esp.1607.

Mueller, E.R. and Pitlick, J. (2005) Morphologically based model of bed-load transport capacity in a headwater stream. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 110, F02016, doi: 10.1029/2003JF000117.

Mueller, E.R., Pitlick, J., and Nelson, J.M. (2005) Variation in the reference Shields stress for bed load transport in gravel-bed streams and rivers. Water Resources Research, 41, doi: 10.1029/2004WR003692.

In Preparation:

Mueller, E.R. Downstream scaling of sediment yields in large watersheds of the northern Rocky Mountains, USA.  For submission TBD.

Lima, R., Buscombe, D., Sankey, T.T., Grams, P.E., and Mueller, E.R. Semantic segmentation of time series imagery using deep convolutional neural networks: a case study of sandbars in Grand Canyon. To be submitted to Water Resources Research.

Theses:

Mueller, E.R. (2012) Landscape controls on sediment supply and stream channel morpho-dynamics in the northern Rocky Mountains. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. Link to pdf

Mueller, E.R. (2002) Downstream changes in channel morphology through a network of gravel-bed streams. M.A. Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.

Mueller, E.R. (2000) Paleohydrologic investigation of the Turtle Creek valley, Wisconsin: Evidence and estimates for a catastrophic flood event. B.S. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.