Vegetation enhances curvature-driven dynamics in meandering rivers.

ABSTRACT: Stabilization of riverbanks by vegetation has long been considered necessary to sustain single-thread meandering rivers. However, observation of active meandering in modern barren landscapes challenges this assumption. Here, we investigate a globally distributed set of modern meandering rivers with varying riparian vegetation densities, using satellite imagery and statistical analyses of meander-form descriptors and migration rates. We show that vegetation enhances the coefficient of proportionality between channel curvature and migration rates at low curvatures, and that this effect wanes in curvier channels irrespective of vegetation density. By stabilizing low-curvature reaches and allowing meanders to gain sinuosity as channels migrate laterally, vegetation quantifiably affects river m

SUBMITTER: Finotello A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10912106 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature