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Vegetation‐driven morphodynamic adjustments of a sand bed
Author(s) -
Le Bouteiller Caroline,
Venditti Jeremy G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl060155
Subject(s) - beach morphodynamics , vegetation (pathology) , sediment transport , geology , hydrology (agriculture) , sediment , shear stress , bedform , flume , flow (mathematics) , environmental science , geomorphology , soil science , geotechnical engineering , medicine , pathology , materials science , geometry , mathematics , composite material
Vegetation is ubiquitous in riverine and coastal environments, but the physics governing morphodynamic interactions modulated by vegetation are still poorly understood. Here we use a simple experiment to study the impact of a vegetated patch on the morphodynamics of a sand bed. We show that the vegetation patch reduces the sediment transport capacity of the flow and that the topography responds to this by an increase of the bed slope to accommodate the upstream sediment supply. Final bed slope and adjustment time scale depend on the ratio between the grain‐related shear stress and the total shear stress. This demonstrates the mechanisms underlying a direct morphodynamic response to the presence of a vegetation patch.