This paper reviews the role of alluvial soils in vegetated gravelly river braid plains. When considering decadal timescales of river evolution, we argue that it becomes vital to consider soil development as an emergent property of the developing ecosystem. Soil processes have been relatively overlooked in accounts of the interactions between braided river processes and vegetation, although soils have been observed on vegetated fluvial landforms. We hypothesize that soil development plays a major role in the transition (speed and pathway) from a fresh sediment deposit to a vegetated soil-covered landform. Disturbance (erosion and/or deposition), vertical sediment structure (process history), vegetation succession, biological activity and water table fluctuation are seen as the main controls on early alluvial soil evolution. Erosion and deposition processes may not only act as soil disturbing agents, but also as suppliers of ecosystem resources, because of their role in delivering and changing access (e.g. through avulsion) to fluxes of water, fine sediments and organic matter. In turn, the associated initial ecosystem may influence further fluvial landform development, such as through the trapping of fine-grained sediments (e.g. sand) by the engineering action of vegetation and the deposit stabilization by the developing aboveground and belowground biomass. This may create a strong feedback between geomorphological processes, vegetation succession and soil evolution which we summarize in a conceptual model. We illustrate this model by an example from the Allondon River (Switzerland) and identify the research questions that follow.

Biogeomorphic succession describes feedbacks between vegetation succession and fluvial processes that, at the decadal timescale, lead to a transition from bare river‐deposited sediment to fully developed riparian forest. Where the rate of stabilization by biogeomorphic succession is greater than the rate of ecological disturbance by fluvial processes, a river is likely to evolve into less dynamic states. While river research has frequently considered the physical dimensions of morphodynamics, less is known about physical controls on succession rates, and how these impact stream morphodynamics. Here we test the hypothesis that groundwater dynamics influence morphodynamics via the rate of biogeomorphic succession. We applied historic imagery analysis in combination with dendroecological methods for willows growing on young gravelly fluvial landforms along a steep groundwater‐depth gradient. We determined the following: floodplain morphodynamics and plant encroachment at the decadal scale, pioneer willow growth rates, and their relationships to hydrological variables. Willow growth rates were correlated with moisture availability (groundwater, discharge, and precipitation variability) in the downwelling reach, while little correlation was found in the upwelling reach. After a reduction in ecological disturbance frequency, data suggest that where groundwater is upwelling, biogeomorphic succession is fast, the engineering effect of vegetation is quickly established, and hence channel stability increased and active channel width reduces. Where groundwater is downwelling, deeper and more variable, biogeomorphic succession is slower, the engineering effect is reduced, and a wider active width is maintained. Thus, groundwater is an important control on biogeomorphic feedbacks intensity and, through the stabilizing effect of vegetation, may drive long‐term river channel morphodynamics.

No abstract

No abstract

Biogeomorphology has been expanding as a discipline, due to increased recognition of the role that biology can play in geomorphic processes, as well as due to our increasing capacity to measure and quantify feedback between biological and geomorphological systems. Here, we provide an overview of the growth and status of biogeomorphology. This overview also provides the context for introducing this special issue on biogeomorphology, and specifically examines the thematic domains of biogeomorphological research, methods used, open questions and conundrums, problems encountered, future research directions, and practical applications in management and policy (e.g. nature‐based solutions). We find that whilst biogeomorphological studies have a long history, there remain many new and surprising biogeomorphic processes and feedbacks that are only now being identified and quantified. Based on the current state of knowledge, we suggest that linking ecological and geomorphic processes across different spatio‐temporal scales emerges as the main research challenge in biogeomorphology, as well as the translation of biogeomorphic knowledge into management approaches to environmental systems. We recommend that future biogeomorphic studies should help to contextualize environmental feedbacks by including the spatio‐temporal scales relevant to the organism(s) under investigation, using knowledge of their ecology and size (or metabolic rate). Furthermore, in order to sufficiently understand the ‘engineering’ capacity of organisms, we recommend studying at least the time period bounded by two disturbance events, and recommend to also investigate the geomorphic work done during disturbance events, in order to put estimates of engineering capacity of biota into a wider perspective. Finally, the future seems bright, as increasingly inter‐disciplinary and longer‐term monitoring are coming to fruition, and we can expect important advances in process understanding across scales and better‐informed modelling efforts. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Alteration in the river flow regime due to intermittent hydropower production (i.e., hydropeaking) leads to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation worldwide.Due to the increasing shear of volatile green energy (i.e., wind and solar), hydropeaking frequency is deemed to increase in the coming decades. However, our mechanistic understanding of how the frequency of repeated hydropeaking (i.e., series of multiple events) affects ecological processes is still limited. Here, we reflect on the impacts of altered flow frequency and relative duration on the persistency of aquatic habitats. We focus on the habitats at patch-scale, being this the scale representing what organisms perceive when interacting with their environment. With a showcase we explore a temporally explicit approach to quantify altered habitat dynamics at patch-scale due to hydropeaking. We then review how changes in habitat dynamics and persistency may affect ecological processes. Our findings suggest that (i) a timeseries approach allows to account for the inherent multi-event nature of hydropeaking; (ii) hydropeaking can increase the dynamics of single habitat patches by at least one order of magnitude if compared to unregulated rivers; (iii) altered habitat dynamics at the patch scale can affect the survival of more sessile species and life cycle stages (e.g., invertebrates) or the energy budget of mobile species and life cycle stages (e.g., adult fish). However, the ecological significance and potential environmental thresholds of patch-scale dynamics and persistency are still poorly investigated and need further attention. Moreover, methods for the aggregation of habitat dynamics and persistency from the patch to the reach-scale are not available yet.

No abstract

No abstract