“…A large body of literature exists describing salt marsh channel initiation and development [e.g., Yapp et al , 1916, 1917; Pestrong , 1965; Redfield , 1965, 1972; Beeftink , 1966; Gardner and Bohn , 1980; French and Stoddart , 1992; Steel and Pye , 1997], the hydrodynamics of salt marsh channels [e.g., Boon , 1975; Pethick , 1980; French and Stoddart , 1992; Rinaldo et al , 1999a, 1999b; Temmerman et al , 2005b; Fagherazzi et al , 2008], and their morphometric features [e.g., Fagherazzi et al , 1999; Rinaldo et al , 1999a, 1999b; Marani et al , 2003; Novakowski et al , 2004; Feola et al , 2005; Marani et al , 2006]. In spite of their fundamental role in the ecomorphodynamic evolution of salt marsh systems, only in the last few years have numerical models been developed to describe the morphogenesis and long‐term dynamics of salt marsh channels [e.g., Fagherazzi and Furbish , 2001; Fagherazzi and Sun , 2004; D'Alpaos et al , 2005, 2006; Marciano et al , 2005; Perillo et al , 2005; Minkoff et al , 2006; Kirwan and Murray , 2007; Temmerman et al , 2007].…”