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Riverine ecosystems are recurrently rejuvenated during destructive flood events and vegetation succession starts again. Poplars (i.e. species from Populus genera) respond to hydrogeomorphological constraints, but, in turn, also influence these processes. Thus, poplar development on bare mineral substrates is not exclusively a one‐way vegetative process. Reciprocal interactions and adjustments between poplar species and sediment dynamics during their life cycle lead to the emergence of biogeomorphological entities within the fluvial corridor, such as vegetated islands, benches and floodplains. Based on a review of geomorphological, biological and ecological literature, we have identified and described the co‐constructing processes between riparian poplars and their fluvial environment. We have explored the possibility that the modification of the hydrogeomorphological environment exerted, in particular, by the European black poplar (Populus nigra L.), increases its fitness and thus results in positive niche construction. We focus on the fundamental phases of dispersal, recruitment and establishment until sexual maturity of P. nigra by describing the hierarchy of interactions and the pattern of feedbacks between biotic and abiotic components. We explicitly relate the biological life cycle of P. nigra to the fluvial biogeomorphic succession model by referring to the ‘biogeomorphological life cycle’ of P. nigra. Finally, we propose new research perspectives based on this theoretical framework. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aim Within fluvial and coastal ecosystems world-wide, flows of water, wind and sediment generate a shifting landscape mosaic composed of bare substrate and pioneer and mature vegetation successional stages. Pioneer plant species that colonize these ecosystems at the land-water interface have developed specific traits in response to environmental constraints (response traits) and are able to modify habitat conditions by modulating geomorphic processes (effect traits). Changes in the geomorphic environment under the control of engineer plants often feed back to organism traits (feedback traits), and thereby ecosystem functioning, leading to eco-evolutionary dynamics. Here we explain the joint foundations of fluvial and coastal ecosystems according to feedback between plants and the geomorphic environment.Location Dynamic fluvial and coastal ecosystems world-wide.Method Drawing from a pre-existing model of 'fluvial biogeomorphic succession' , we propose a conceptual framework showing that fluvial and coastal 'biogeomorphic ecosystems' are functionally similar due to eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plants and geomorphology. ResultsThe relationships between plant traits and their geomorphic environments within different fluvial and coastal biogeomorphic ecosystems are identified and classified within a framework of biogeomorphic functional similarity according to three criteria: (1) pioneer plants develop specific responses to the geomorphic environment; (2) engineer plants modulate the geomorphic environment; (3) geomorphic changes under biotic control within biogeomorphic ecosystems feed back to organisms. Main conclusionsThe conceptual framework of functional similarity proposed here will improve our capacity to analyse, compare, manage and restore fluvial and coastal biogeomorphic ecosystems world-wide by using the same protocols based on the three criteria and four phases of the biogeomorphic succession model.