Bouma, T.J.

Cozzoli, F.

Kleinhans, M.G.

Leuven, J.

Selakovic, S.

Speybroeck, J.

Van Braeckel, A.

Open Marine Archive

 34 
 
SEDIMENT-STABILISING AND -DESTABILISING ECOENGINEERING SPECIES FROM RIVER TO 
ESTUARY: THE CASE OF THE SCHELDT SYSTEM 
S. Selaković1*, F. Cozzoli2, J. Leuven1, A. Van Braeckel3, J. Speybroeck3, M.G. Kleinhans1, T.J. Bouma4  
1 Utrecht University, 2 University of Salento, Italy 3 Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium,  
4 Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) 
* S.Selakovic@uu.nl 
 
Interactions between organisms and landscape-forming processes play an important role in evolution 
of coastal landscapes. In particular, biota has a strong potential to interact with important 
geomorphological processes such as sediment dynamics. Although many studies worked towards 
quantifying the impact of different species groups on sediment dynamics, information has been gathered 
on ad hoc base. Depending on species’ traits and distribution, functional groups of ecoengineering 
species may have differential effect on sediment deposition and erosion. We hypothesize that the spatial 
distribution of sediment-stabilising and -destabilising species across the channel and along the whole 
salinity gradient of an estuary partly determines the planform shape and channel-shoal morphology of 
estuaries. 
To test this hypothesis, we analyse vegetation and macrobenthic data taking the Scheldt river-
estuarine continuum as model ecosystem. We identify species traits with important effects on sediment 
dynamics and use them to form functional groups. We are able to accurately describe the distributions 
of the different functional groups along the estuarine gradient and observe a clear distinction of 
dominant ecosystem-engineering functional groups and their potential effects on the sediment in the 
river-estuarine continuum. 
The first results for the longitudinal cross section show the highest effects of stabilising plant 
species in riverine and sediment bioturbators in the weak polyhaline part of the river-estuarine 
continuum. Analysis of the distribution of functional groups in transverse cross sections shows 
dominant stabilizing effects in the supratidal zone compared to dominant destabilizing effects in the 
lower intertidal zone (Figure 1). 
This analysis offers a new and more general conceptualisation of the distribution of sediment-
stabilizing and -destabilizing functional groups of ecoengineering species and their potential impacts 
on sediment dynamics, shoal patterns and planform shapes in the river-estuarine continuum. We will 
test this concept in future modelling and experiments.  
 
 
 
 
Figure 1. Distribution of sediment-stabilising and -destabilising ecoengineering species in Scheldt system. 
  


Sediment-stabilising and -destabilising ecoengineering species from river to estuary: the case of the Scheldt system

http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/327877.pdf

Sediment-stabilising and -destabilising ecoengineering species from river to estuary: the case of the Scheldt system

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Open Marine Archive