Modeling memory in gravel-bed rivers: a flow-history-dependent relation for evolving thresholds of motion

Masteller, Claire C.; Johnson, Joel P. L.; Rickenmann, Dieter; Turowski, Jens M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-593-2025

Articles | Volume 13, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-593-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-593-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 4

Research article

|

22 Jul 2025

Research article |

| 22 Jul 2025

Modeling memory in gravel-bed rivers: a flow-history-dependent relation for evolving thresholds of motion

Claire C. Masteller, Joel P. L. Johnson, Dieter Rickenmann, and Jens M. Turowski

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Final revised paper (published on 22 Jul 2025)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 10 Dec 2024)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3250', Elowyn Yager, 08 Jan 2025

Please see attached pdf.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3250-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Claire Masteller, 31 Mar 2025
  
  We thank the reviewer for her helpful comments. We have included a response to her comments and suggestions in the attached PDF.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3250-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3250', Shawn Chartrand, 21 Feb 2025

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-3250/egusphere-2024-3250-RC2-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3250-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Claire Masteller, 31 Mar 2025
  
  We thank the reviewer for his comments. We have provided a detailed response to his comments and suggestions as an attached PDF.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3250-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Claire Masteller on behalf of the Authors (09 Apr 2025) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (09 May 2025) by Anne Baar

ED: Publish as is (11 May 2025) by Wolfgang Schwanghart (Editor)

AR by Claire Masteller on behalf of the Authors (12 May 2025)

Short summary

This paper presents a novel model that predicts how gravel riverbeds may evolve in response to differences in the frequency and severity of flood events. We test our model using a 23-year-long record of river flow and gravel transport from the Swiss Prealps. We find that our model reliably captures yearly patterns in gravel transport in this setting. Our new model is a major advance towards better predictions of river erosion that account for the flood history of a gravel-bed river.