Articles | Volume 12, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-601-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-601-2024
Research article
 | 
29 Apr 2024
Research article |  | 29 Apr 2024

On the relative role of abiotic and biotic controls in channel network development: insights from scaled tidal flume experiments

Sarah Hautekiet, Jan-Eike Rossius, Olivier Gourgue, Maarten Kleinhans, and Stijn Temmerman

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Cited articles

Allen, J.: Morphodynamics of Holocene salt marshes: a review sketch from the Atlantic and Southern North Sea coasts of Europe, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 19, 1155–1231, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00034-7, 2000. 
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Bij de Vaate, I., Brückner, M. Z. M., Kleinhans, M. G., and Schwarz, C.: On the Impact of Salt Marsh Pioneer Species-Assemblages on the Emergence of Intertidal Channel Networks, Water Resour. Res., 56, e2019WR025942, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025942, 2020. 
Bouma, T. J., van Duren, L. A., Temmerman, S., Claverie, T., Blanco-Garcia, A., Ysebaert, T., and Herman, P. M. J.: Spatial flow and sedimentation patterns within patches of epibenthic structures: Combining field, flume and modelling experiments, Cont. Shelf Res., 27, 1020–1045, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2005.12.019, 2007. 
Bouma, T. J., Temmerman, S., van Duren, L. A., Martini, E., Vandenbruwaene, W., Callaghan, D. P., Balke, T., Biermans, G., Klaassen, P. C., van Steeg, P., Dekker, F., van de Koppel, J., de Vries, M. B., and Herman, P. M. J.: Organism traits determine the strength of scale-dependent bio-geomorphic feedbacks: A flume study on three intertidal plant species, Geomorphology, 180–181, 57–65, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.09.005, 2013. 
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This study examined how vegetation growing in marshes affects the formation of tidal channel networks. Experiments were conducted to imitate marsh development, both with and without vegetation. The results show interdependency between biotic and abiotic factors in channel development. They mainly play a role when the landscape changes from bare to vegetated. Overall, the study suggests that abiotic factors are more important near the sea, while vegetation plays a larger role closer to the land.
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