Fluvial process dynamics in stable alluvial channels includes a broad range of interacting processes that mobilize, transport, erode, and deposit sediment—and create, maintain, and degrade

riparian habitat. One significant aspect of this range of fluvial processes that is altered by incision affects the way channels interact with their floodplains, or lateral connectivity (Brierly et al., 2006) that includes selleck compound transfer of water, sediment, nutrients, organic matter, and biota between the channel and adjacent floodplain (Pringle, 2001, Pringle, 2003 and Brookes, 2003). Heterogeneous channel-floodplain dynamics related to connectivity result in biocomplexity that is lost as incision disconnects floodplains (Amoros and Bornette, 2002), leaving the former floodplain abandoned as a terrace alongside the channel. Dynamics in incised alluvial channels include processes such as bank erosion, Selleck GSK2118436 which is part of a sequence of events that follows channel incision and increases in bank height or bank angle. In incised channels, banks may reach a critical threshold height where any increase in channel bed lowering that increases bank height may in turn cause bank erosion (Carson and Kirkby, 1972 and Thorne, 1982). Both widening and channel

narrowing have been reported following incision in alluvial channels. In the case of widening following incision, as bank angles lessen during mass wasting and bank retreat, another threshold may eventually be reached where at a given bank height the low angle surface is stable enough to support pioneer woody plants (Simon, 1989). Conceptual models describe the relation between incision

and bank erosion as following a series of steps in a sequence of adjustment (Schumm et al., 1984, Simon and Hupp, 1986, Simon, 1989 and Doyle et al., 2003). Steps after initial incision may Smoothened include: increased bank height and isolation of the former floodplain as a terrace, bank erosion, channel aggradation and creation of a new lower bank angle and height, and eventual formation of a new stable channel with a correspondingly lower inset floodplain that can support riparian vegetation establishment (Simon, 1989); a sequence of adjustments estimated to take hundreds to thousands of years (Simon and Castro, 2003). However, one conceptual model does not explain the variation in evolutionary pathways or rates in various environments (Doyle et al., 2003 and Beechie et al., 2008). In fact, numerous recent studies suggest that narrowing follows incision, often in association with embankments and erosion control structures (Surian, 1999, Łajczak, 1995, Winterbottom, 2000, Rinaldi, 2003 and Rădoane et al., 2013). Moreover, some rivers progress through a sequence of changes that includes spatial differences with respect to narrowing and incision followed by widening and aggradation (Surian and Cisotto, 2007). Steiger et al.