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Matters Arising
| Open AccessReply to: Coastal shoreline change assessments at global scales
- Rafael Almar
- , Julien Boucharel
- & Erwin W. J. Bergsma
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Article
| Open AccessVegetation enhances curvature-driven dynamics in meandering rivers
Riparian vegetation densities critically mediate the morphodynamics of meandering rivers: plants slow the rate at which channels move laterally and reinforce the key, first-order control that curvature exerts on meander planform evolution.
- Alvise Finotello
- , Alessandro Ielpi
- & Andrea D’Alpaos
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Article
| Open AccessHuman-triggered magnification of erosion rates in European Alps since the Bronze Age
Using a lake sediment core taken from the European Alps and combining a source-sink approach with isotope geochemistry, it has been established that the effects of human activities have outweighed those of climate on erosion for more than 3800 years.
- William Rapuc
- , Charline Giguet-Covex
- & Fabien Arnaud
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Article
| Open AccessRecent intensified erosion and massive sediment deposition in Tibetan Plateau rivers
Climate change intensifies erosion and sediment transport in rivers of the Tibetan Plateau. Satellite data unveil unprecedented patterns of sediment deposition in rivers. Pronounced spatiotemporal heterogeneities within and across basins are found.
- Jinlong Li
- , Genxu Wang
- & Dongfeng Li
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessSea-level rise may not uniformly accelerate cliff erosion rates
- M. E. Dickson
- , H. Matsumoto
- & A. P. Young
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Article
| Open AccessShoreface erosion counters blue carbon accumulation in transgressive barrier-island systems
Landward barrier migration facilitates erosion of shoreface-exposed marsh and lagoon carbon stocks at rates outpacing backbarrier carbon accumulation, thus demonstrating the ephemeral nature of blue carbon storage along transgressive coasts.
- Mary Bryan Barksdale
- , Christopher J. Hein
- & Matthew L. Kirwan
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal distribution and dynamics of muddy coasts
14% of the world’s coastlines are muddy and the majority of them are eroding at rates exceeding 1 m per year over the last three decades, according to an automated classification method that identifies global coastlines.
- Romy Hulskamp
- , Arjen Luijendijk
- & Stefan Aarninkhof
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Article
| Open AccessReconciling patterns of long-term topographic growth with coseismic uplift by synchronous duplex thrusting
Deciphering the relationship between prolonged topographic growth and temporary earthquake uplift is challenging due to the mismatch in their deformation patterns. Zhang et al. introduce a novel model to address this highly hotly-debated discrepancy.
- Yuqing Zhang
- , Hanlin Chen
- & Xiu Hu
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Article
| Open AccessVegetation controls on channel network complexity in coastal wetlands
Channel networks are key to coastal wetland functioning. Here, the authors show how vegetation enhances network branching, and hypothesize that this may enhance the storm surge buffering capacity of wetlands and their resilience under sea-level rise.
- Roeland C. van de Vijsel
- , Jim van Belzen
- & Johan van de Koppel
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Article
| Open AccessLong-term sea level rise modeling of a basin-tidal inlet system reveals sediment sinks
Barrier islands and backbarrier saltmarshes are particularly threatened by sea level rise. Here, the authors show how reduction in intertidal areas create negative feedback, shifting transport of coarse sediment through the inlet from net export to net import.
- Kevin C. Hanegan
- , Duncan M. FitzGerald
- & Zoe J. Hughes
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Article
| Open AccessAn ancient river landscape preserved beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
Using satellite and survey data, an ancient river landscape 300 km wide has been discovered buried and preserved beneath the ice in East Antarctica. It has likely survived largely intact for up to 34 million years since before ice sheet growth.
- Stewart S. R. Jamieson
- , Neil Ross
- & Martin J. Siegert
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Article
| Open AccessHigh Arctic channel incision modulated by climate change and the emergence of polygonal ground
Accelerating global warming is driving profound Arctic environmental change. The authors show that the structure and evolution of new stream networks are influenced by the evolving character of geometric ground patterns related to the response of permafrost to recent climate change.
- Shawn M. Chartrand
- , A. Mark Jellinek
- & Shannon Hibbard
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Article
| Open AccessQuantitative constraints on flood variability in the rock record
Dunes and woody-debris preserved in the rock record have been used to quantify the magnitude and duration of flow events in ancient rivers, revealing a fluvial system dominated by flashy, storm-driven floods 300 million years ago.
- Jonah S. McLeod
- , James Wood
- & Alexander C. Whittaker
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Article
| Open AccessClimate-controlled submarine landslides on the Antarctic continental margin
Changes in climate preconditioned large-scale, recurrent Miocene to Pleistocene Antarctic submarine landslides through variations in biological productivity, ice proximity and ocean circulation, posing tsunami risk to Southern Hemisphere populations.
- Jenny A. Gales
- , Robert M. McKay
- & Zhifang Xiong
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Article
| Open AccessDeep learning forecast of rainfall-induced shallow landslides
How much rain does it take to trigger a landslide? This work shows that deep learning can identify the driving forces that can cause rainfall induced landslides, opening up the possibility of forecasting landslide events over large areas
- Alessandro C. Mondini
- , Fausto Guzzetti
- & Massimo Melillo
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Article
| Open AccessSediment delivery to sustain the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta under climate change and anthropogenic impacts
The potential for enhanced sediment delivery to the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta exists, but it alone is insufficient to sustain the system. The delta may be resilient to climate change, but only in the absence of dam construction and water diversions.
- Jessica L. Raff
- , Steven L. Goodbred Jr.
- & Lauren A. Williams
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal scale analysis on the extent of river channel belts
Here the authors present a global scale classification of river channel belt extents as a resource for improved ecosystem accounting and river behavior analysis. Moreover, the methods show advances in pattern recognition to define new global landform products.
- Björn Nyberg
- , Gijs Henstra
- & Juha Ahokas
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Article
| Open AccessEarly indicators of tidal ecosystem shifts in estuaries
Transitions from bare tidal flats to vegetated marshes are an example of shift between alternative stable ecosystem states. Here, the authors use remote sensing and modelling to quantify three stages in tidal flat evolution and identify early warning signals.
- Gregory S. Fivash
- , Stijn Temmerman
- & Tjeerd J. Bouma
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Article
| Open AccessClimate-driven tradeoffs between landscape connectivity and the maintenance of the coastal carbon sink
Coastal connectivity between ecosystems increases with sea level rise but fails to maintain landscape carbon storage and marsh extent at extreme rates of sea level rise.
- Kendall Valentine
- , Ellen R. Herbert
- & Matthew L. Kirwan
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Article
| Open AccessFaunal engineering stimulates landscape-scale accretion in southeastern US salt marshes
The contribution of animal ecosystem engineers to coastal geomorphological processes is often neglected. Here, the authors combine observational, experimental and modelling work to demonstrate that ecosystem engineering by mussels is a much stronger driver of salt marsh accretion rates than expected.
- Sinéad M. Crotty
- , Daniele Pinton
- & Christine Angelini
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Article
| Open AccessMilankovitch-paced erosion in the southern Central Andes
Fisher et al. combine sediment geochemistry and climate modelling to reveal long-term synchrony between erosion rates and orbitally-driven climate oscillations in the tectonically-active southern Central Andes.
- G. Burch Fisher
- , Lisa V. Luna
- & Lucas J. Lourens
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Article
| Open AccessSteps dominate gas evasion from a mountain headwater stream
Emissions from local steps dominate the CO2 evasion of mountain river networks, owing to the pronounced turbulence in correspondence of each plunging jet and the low spacing between steps typical of high energy streams.
- Gianluca Botter
- , Anna Carozzani
- & Nicola Durighetto
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Article
| Open AccessA distinct ripple-formation regime on Mars revealed by the morphometrics of barchan dunes
Dust storms on Mars drive water escape to space. Here, the authors show the impact Martian dust storms have on the abundance of atmospheric hydrogen and oxygen, and how this helps to overall oxidize the Martian atmosphere.
- Lior Rubanenko
- , Mathieu G. A. Lapôtre
- & Andrew Gunn
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Article
| Open AccessSea-level rise will likely accelerate rock coast cliff retreat rates
Results forecast that cliff retreat rates will increase by up to an order of magnitude by 2100 according to current predictions of sea-level rise, and reveal that even historically stable rock coasts are highly sensitive to sea-level rise.
- Jennifer R. Shadrick
- , Dylan H. Rood
- & Klaus M. Wilcken
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Article
| Open AccessInversions of landslide strength as a proxy for subsurface weathering
Bedrock weathering is associated with landslides, and also manifests as a change in the strength of subsurface materials. This study analyzes inventoried landslides to explore relationships between strength and landslide depth as a potential reflection of subsurface weathering at large scales.
- Stefano Alberti
- , Ben Leshchinsky
- & Michael J. Olsen
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Article
| Open AccessEolian chronology reveals causal links between tectonics, climate, and erg generation
Modeling cosmogenic nuclides concentrations from Kalahari Desert Sand reveals the time of sand introduction into the landscape. This coincides with morphotectonic and climatic changes that could have triggered sand production and its impact on the environment.
- Shlomy Vainer
- , Ari Matmon
- & Karim Keddadouche
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Article
| Open AccessFeedbacks between sea-floor spreading, trade winds and precipitation in the Southern Red Sea
Testing feedbacks between climatic and geological processes are challenging. Here, the authors show that geomorphological features of the southern Red Sea margin are best interpreted by a feedback cycle between orographic precipitation, mid-ocean spreading and coastal magmatism, and that the feedback is enhanced by the trade wind.
- Kurt Stüwe
- , Jörg Robl
- & Finlay M. Stuart
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Article
| Open AccessRainfall and sea level drove the expansion of seasonally flooded habitats and associated bird populations across Amazonia
This study found that millennial periods of higher rainfall combined with rising sea level enhanced sediment accumulation in Amazonian rivers valleys. This fuelled synchronous expansion of vegetation adapted to seasonally flooded substrates and its specialized bird populations, showing how global climate changes can affect specific Amazonian species.
- A. O. Sawakuchi
- , E. D. Schultz
- & C. C. Ribas
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Article
| Open AccessCompeting effects of vegetation density on sedimentation in deltaic marshes
Wetland vegetation is typically considered only in terms of enhancing sediment accretion and positively impacting land-building. Here, the authors show that the degree of enhancement has a strong dependence on vegetation density through the influence on sediment supply and retention.
- Yuan Xu
- , Christopher R. Esposito
- & Heidi M. Nepf
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Article
| Open AccessCoupled influence of tectonics, climate, and surface processes on landscape evolution in southwestern North America
Cenozoic landscape evolution of southwestern North America remains debated. Here, the authors reconstruct landscape using 4-D numerical models, which can explain extensional collapse and superficial geological record for the Basin and Range Province
- Alireza Bahadori
- , William E. Holt
- & Catherine Badgley
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Article
| Open Access21st-century stagnation in unvegetated sand-sea activity
Earth’s largest dune fields are set to become less dynamic on average over this century due to anthropogenic climate change, with no future action able to mitigate this effect, as predicted by the newest iteration of CMIP models.
- Andrew Gunn
- , Amy East
- & Douglas J. Jerolmack
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Article
| Open AccessThe cryptic seismic potential of the Pichilemu blind fault in Chile revealed by off-fault geomorphology
Cryptic faults concern earthquake scientists, since they pose a hidden seismic potential which is hard to identify. To address this, the authors here study off-fault deformed geomorphic markers such as marine terraces using high-resolution LiDAR topography, optical dating of sediments and space geodetic observations.
- J. Jara-Muñoz
- , D. Melnick
- & M. R. Strecker
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Article
| Open AccessWhat sets aeolian dune height?
Giant dunes—stunning landforms that grow in patterns as wind blows sand grains over thousands of years—are measured across the entire planet for the first time. With this data, it’s shown the dunes can, in principle, grow in scale indefinitely.
- Andrew Gunn
- , Giampietro Casasanta
- & Douglas J. Jerolmack
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Article
| Open AccessSalt marshes create more extensive channel networks than mangroves
A comparison of salt marsh and mangrove channel networks around the world exhibited different network extents. This could be linked to differences in vegetation colonization strategies, with major implications on coastal development.
- Christian Schwarz
- , Floris van Rees
- & Barend van Maanen
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Article
| Open AccessAeolian sediment transport on Io from lava–frost interactions
Dunes may form on Jupiter’s moon Io. Despite a tenuous atmosphere, interactions between widespread lava and sulfur dioxide frost may produce vapor flows dense enough to mobilize sand grains. Ridge-like features may be evidence of this phenomenon.
- George D. McDonald
- , Joshua Méndez Harper
- & Laura Kerber
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Article
| Open AccessLarge-scale cryovolcanic resurfacing on Pluto
Giant icy volcanos (cryovolcanos) on Pluto are unique in the imaged solar system and provide evidence for unexpected, active geology late in Pluto’s history.
- Kelsi N. Singer
- , Oliver L. White
- & Kimberly Ennico-Smith
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Article
| Open AccessMorphodynamic limits to environmental signal propagation across landscapes and into strata
A new quantitative tool provides a volumetric assessment of environmental signal propagation and transfer in sediment routing systems, that could have broad applicability and utility in the field.
- Stephan C. Toby
- , Robert A. Duller
- & Kyle M. Straub
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Article
| Open AccessMegaripple mechanics: bimodal transport ingrained in bimodal sands
Megaripples are sand landforms found in wind-blown environments. A newly identified characteristic signature of the underlying bimodal sand transport process is found in the grain-size distribution on megaripples and could lend insight into transport conditions on Earth and other planetary bodies.
- Katharina Tholen
- , Thomas Pähtz
- & Klaus Kroy
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Article
| Open AccessExistence of a continental-scale river system in eastern Tibet during the late Cretaceous–early Palaeogene
This study provides evidence for a continental-scale river system that existed in eastern Tibet before the India-Asia collision. The river system developed an extensive low-relief landscape, which was uplifted and dissected during the late Cenozoic.
- Xudong Zhao
- , Huiping Zhang
- & Peizhen Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessThe mechanics of landslide mobility with erosion
The threat posed by erosive-landslides is directly linked to their mobility. Here, the authors propose a mechanical model for the energy budget of erosive-landslides that controls their enhanced or reduced mobility.
- Shiva P. Pudasaini
- & Michael Krautblatter
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Article
| Open AccessPeering into lunar permanently shadowed regions with deep learning
Some regions on the Moon are permanently covered in shadow and are therefore extremely difficult to see into. We develop a deep learning driven algorithm which enhances images of these regions, allowing us to see inside them with high resolution for the first time.
- V. T. Bickel
- , B. Moseley
- & M. Shirley
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Article
| Open AccessBadland landscape response to individual geomorphic events
The relative role of individual forcing events in long-term landscape evolution is challenging to measure in the field. Badlands offer special opportunities to quantify common, natural landscape dynamics on observational time scales.
- Ci-Jian Yang
- , Jens M. Turowski
- & Kuo-Jen Chang
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Article
| Open AccessThe perpetual fragility of creeping hillslopes
The downhill motion of soils on hillslopes is not well understood. Here, the authors present laboratory experiments and show that hillslopes are made perpetually fragile by environmental perturbations that prevent them from stabilizing.
- Nakul S. Deshpande
- , David J. Furbish
- & Douglas J. Jerolmack
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Article
| Open AccessCosmogenic in situ 14C-10Be reveals abrupt Late Holocene soil loss in the Andean Altiplano
The assessment of soil sustainability in prehistoric times requires comparing millennium-scale erosion rates with geological background rates. Here, the authors apply in situ cosmogenic 14C, 10Be, and 26Al to reveal rapid soil erosion on the Andean Altiplano in response to Late Holocene climate change and the onset of agropastoralism.
- Kristina Hippe
- , John D. Jansen
- & David Lundbek Egholm
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Article
| Open AccessFire-induced rock spalling as a mechanism of weathering responsible for flared slope and inselberg development
Fire is an important mechanism of physical weathering responsible for the formation of overhanging flared slopes around the margins of steep-sided inselbergs. Fire-spalling erodes landscapes laterally rather than vertically and produces significant volumes of new sediment.
- Solomon Buckman
- , Rowena H. Morris
- & Robert P. Bourman
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Article
| Open AccessA new global ice sheet reconstruction for the past 80 000 years
The configuration of past ice sheets, and therefore sea level, is highly uncertain. Here, the authors provide a global reconstruction of ice sheets for the past 80,000 years that allows to test proxy based sea level reconstructions and helps to reconcile disagreements with sea level changes inferred from models.
- Evan J. Gowan
- , Xu Zhang
- & Gerrit Lohmann
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Article
| Open AccessConstraining tectonic uplift and advection from the main drainage divide of a mountain belt
One of the most conspicuous features of a mountain belt is the main drainage divide. Here, the authors constrain the tectonic uplift and advection of a mountain belt from the location and migration direction of its main drainage divide.
- Chuanqi He
- , Ci-Jian Yang
- & Xiao-Ping Yuan
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Article
| Open AccessLunar impact crater identification and age estimation with Chang’E data by deep and transfer learning
Using Chang’E data, the authors here identify more than 109,000 previously unrecognized lunar craters and date almost 19,000 craters based on transfer learning with deep neural networks. A new lunar crater database is derived and distributed to the planetary community.
- Chen Yang
- , Haishi Zhao
- & Ziyuan Ouyang
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Article
| Open AccessThe human impact on North American erosion, sediment transfer, and storage in a geologic context
Human activities have accelerated soil erosion and landscape change in many areas. Here the authors show how rates of erosion, sediment transfer and alluvial sedimentation have increased by an order of magnitude across North America since European colonization, far exceeding the rates expected of natural processes.
- David B. Kemp
- , Peter M. Sadler
- & Veerle Vanacker