Our research themes
Earth and Planetary
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Basin
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Fluvial
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In the spotlight
Vegetation enhances curvature-driven dynamics in meandering rivers Meandering rivers are observed in both vegetated and unvegetated landscapes, although vegetation is known to stabilize meanders in a variety of ways. Considering the above, does vegetation leave measurable inprints in the planform and dynamics of meandering rivers? This article published in Nature Communications explores this fundamental question. We show that vegeation does in fact strenghten the relationships between curvature and migration rate in channel bends of mild curvature and, in doing so, it helps stabilizing juvenile meanders. |
Our research milestones
Large sinuous rivers are slowing down in a warming Arctic Landscape scientists have long theorized that warming and related permafrost thaw in the Arctic would lead to riverbank weakening, thereby accelerating the migration pace of channels. This hypothesis, however, has remained untested for decades. This article published in Nature Climate Change presents results from half a century of timelapse analysis from large sinuous watercourses and, surprisingly, shows that increasing vegetation coverage and changing hydrology have been slowing down the migration pace of large rivers in the Arctic. |
How is time distributed in a river meander belt? The migration of river bends incessantly rejuvenates sediment and soil in a floodplain, but what morphodynamic descriptors best capture the age structure of a meander belt? This article in the Geophysical Research Letters aims to answer this fundamental question by integrating globally distributed observations from natural rivers and a state-of-the-art numerical simulation of meander development. We show that the distribution of time in floodplains is fundamentally controlled by a saturation state in the disposition of abandoned meanders. |
The impact of vegetation on meandering rivers Despite decades of research, key aspects regarding the stability of meandering rivers with or without vegetation remain debated. In this summary published in the Earth and Environment section of Nature Reviews, we distill the evidence from more than 200 papers on the subject, and discuss a way forward on the debate about plants and meanders. Key to our analysis is the observation of meandering rivers in modern barren deserts, as well as of ancient meandering-fluvial deposits preserved from Earth's and Mars' early days. |
Global zircon analysis records a gradual rise of continental crust throughout the Neoarchean When did continents first emerge above the primordial ocean on Earth? This impactful paper, published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters by Jesse Reimink, Joshua Davies, and Alessandro Ielpi, looks into this polarizing question and provides a sample-based analysis of the global detrital-zircon record. Results indicate that, in agreement with what observed in the sedimentary record, landmasses capable of sustaining continent-scale catchments became a common feature in the Neoarchean. |
The pace of fluvial meanders on Mars and implications for the Western Delta deposits of Jezero Crater Jezero Crater, the selected landing site for the Mars 2020 Rover Mission, preserves a deltaic complex along its western flank – a primary target for the search of life signatures on Mars. In this research in AGU Advances lead by Mathieu Lapôtre at Stanford University, we use meander-migration rates on Earth to constrain the duration of delta formation, and conclude that quick burial of sediment may have favored the preservation of organic compounds therein. Image credit: Kevin Gill, distributed under CC BY 2.0. |
A tenfold slowdown in river meander migration driven by plant life Plants can stabilize river banks, but to what extent did their evolution alter sediment and biogeochemical fluxes globally? In this impactful research published in Nature Geoscience, we present a compilation of meander migration rates from modern rivers found in different climate settings, including desert streams devoid of vegetation. We find that barren meanders consistently migrate about an order of magnitude faster than vegetated meanders, and use this evidence to quantify how profoundly land plants have impacted sediment and carbon fluxes on our planet. |
Morphometric convergence between Proterozoic and post-vegetation rivers In this impactful paper that appeared in Nature Communications, we directly challenge the assumption that pre-vegetation rivers had broad, shallow channels. Using remote sensing and ground data, we presente geometric evidence of preserved Precambrian channel forms exposed in Arctic Canada and the Scottish Highlands. We demonstrate that large, pan-continental river systems maintained similar geometry for at least the last 2 billion years of Earth's history. |
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