Ecogeomorphological feedbacks of water fluxes, sediment transport and vegetation dynamics in rivers and estuaries

Fluvial and estuarine landscapes are shaped by intertwined physical and biological processes which act over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and give rise to complex nonlinear dynamics, where feedbacks between the different processes play a crucial role in determining the dynamics and stable states of the emergent biogeomorphic patterns (e.g., [9, 34, 46, 53, 56]). The explicit description of interacting biotic and abiotic dynamics is therefore a key requirement for understanding, and modelling, the evolution of fluvial and estuarine systems, which can exhibit fast responses and possibly irreversible transformations as a result of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes (e.g., [9, 39, 54, 57]). This Special Issue presents a sample of research topics, issues, and tools provided by researchers who work at the interface between hydrology, ecology, and geomorphology and highlight clear interactions between landscape and biota. The objective is to bring together contributions on theoretical, observational, and experimental studies of the dynamical interactions between hydrologic, ecologic, and geomorphic processes in riverine and estuarine ecosystems. A second but equally important goal is to improve the awareness of the crucial role exerted by biotic and abiotic interactions in driving fluvial and estuarine ecosystem dynamics, and to further develop discussion on how cross-disciplinary approaches can address the coupled evolution of landform and biota (Fig. 1). Advances in our understanding of the mutual interactions and adjustments between physical and biological processes are quite timely and much in demand particularly for the conservation of ecosystems endangered by climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The fascinating and interdisciplinary research area called “ecogeomorphology” is still in its infancy, but is rapidly displacing the boundaries of more traditional disciplines belonging to environmental fluid mechanics and physical geography. Hereafter we highlight the crucial role of biogeomorphic feedbacks on the dynamics of Earth’s landscapes before summarizing the contributions to this Special Issue