ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.

Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1574276

Trade-offs between vegetation and sediment availability in shaping longterm tidal network morphodynamics

Provisionally accepted
Yuxian GuYuxian Gu1Guangxuan HanGuangxuan Han2Liang GengLiang Geng1Baohua XIEBaohua XIE2Yanan ZhangYanan Zhang3Danghan XieDanghan Xie4*Sergio FagherazziSergio Fagherazzi5Heyue ZhangHeyue Zhang1Giovanni CocoGiovanni Coco6Zeng ZhouZeng Zhou1*
  • 1College of Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
  • 2Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yantai, Shandong Province, China
  • 3Yancheng Wetland and World Natural Heritage Protection Management Center, Yancheng, China
  • 4Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
  • 5Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
  • 6Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

Saltmarsh introduction has been widely implemented to restore ecosystem services and promote sedimentation in tidal mudflats, yet its effects on tidal network dynamics remain hard to predict. The interplay between saltmarsh extent and sediment availability in shaping long-term mudflat morphodynamics is not fully understood. We develop a two-dimensional bio-morphodynamic model to examine the individual and combined influences of saltmarsh presence and sediment availability on the evolution of tidal-flat channels. Our results demonstrate that sediment availability controls the longterm morphological change of mudflats, while the presence of saltmarshes exerts substantial short-term alterations in mudflat evolution. During the initial phase of saltmarsh introduction, vegetation promotes the development of tidal networks, characterized by channel elongation, narrowing and deepening.However, under higher sediment supply, saltmarshes restrict sediment deposition on landward and central mudflats compared to that on unvegetated flats. Furthermore, sediment availability primarily facilitates the extension of pre-existing channels, while saltmarshes play a dual role in both generating new channels and elongating existing ones. This distinction highlights the competing mechanisms driving channel network development.

Keywords: Saltmarshes, Morphodynamics, Tidal networks, Mudflat, Sediment availability

Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Gu, Han, Geng, XIE, Zhang, Xie, Fagherazzi, Zhang, Coco and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Danghan Xie, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, United States
Zeng Zhou, College of Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material