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Feedback between hydrogeomorphological processes and riparian plants drives landscape dynamics and vegetation succession in river corridors. We describe the consequences of biogeomorphological feedback on the formation and dynamics of vegetated fluvial landforms based on observations from the channelized Isère River in France. The channel was laterally confined with embankments and mostly straightened. From the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1990s, alternate bars were progressively but heavily colonized by vegetation. This context presented an exceptional opportunity to analyse temporal adjustments between fluvial landforms and vegetation succession from bare gravel bars to mature upland forest as the consequence of biogeomorphological interactions. Based on a GIS analysis of aerial photographs (between 1948 and 1996), we show that the spatiotemporal organization of vegetated bars within the river channel observed in 1996 resulted from a bioconstruction and biostabilization effect of vegetation and interactions between bars of varying age, size and mobility. Field measurements in 1996 reflected how a strong positive feedback between sedimentary dynamics and riparian vegetation succession resulted in the construction of the vegetated bars. A highly significant statistical association of geomorphological and vegetation variables (RV of co‐inertia analysis = 0.41, p < 0.001) explained 95% of the variability in just one axis, supporting the existence of very strong feedback between geomorphological changes (i.e. the transformation of small bare alternate bars to fluvial landforms covered by mature upland forest, and vegetation succession). Such dynamics reflect the fluvial biogeomorphological successions model, as described by the authors earlier. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents the first results of the geoarchaeological study of an unusual hilltop wetland, located within the protohistoric proto‐urban site of Corent in the French Massif Central. This small depression offers an exceptionally local sedimentary record that provided valuable data on long‐term human–environment interactions, as well as proto‐urbanization of the first millennium B.C.E. Field survey revealed a major archaeological discovery: a large ensemble of 114 Iron Age storage pits excavated in clayey deposits. The geoarchaeological analysis of stratigraphic logs and cross‐sections completed by geophysical survey and radiocarbon dating allowed us to refine the chronology of these structures. Here, we suggest these structures are probably contemporary with the Hallstatt occupation of the site (600–425 B.C.E.), consistent with the emergence at Corent of a short‐lived proto‐urban environment during this period. These investigations also allowed us to characterize the main evolution phases of the basin and the diversity of human impacts from first disturbance in the Early Neolithic to its final destruction in the Roman period. These findings highlight the nonlinear nature of the socio‐environmental interactions and the definitive shift to an “anthroposystem” as a consequence of major disturbance in the first Iron Age, centuries before the development of urban settlements in the oppida period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past fluvial biogeomorphic succession dynamics, i.e. reciprocal interactions and adjustments between vegetation growth and fluvial landform construction, were monitored and reconstructed using stereophotogrammetry. The four-dimensional spatio-temporal stereophotogrammetric analyses were based on the use of archival analogue and digital aerial photographs. First, we tested the relevance of the technique to produce floodplain digital terrain models (DTMs) and cover height models (CHMs) of the dynamic River Allier, France, and compared the models derived from photogrammetric procedures to field measurements for CHMs and to LiDAR data for DTMs. Automatic photogrammetric procedures tended to create inaccurate digital models with production of outliers, incomplete sectors and areas of confusion especially for analogue stereo-pairs. Expert correction using stereoscopic viewing improved the vertical accuracy of the digital models, but the vegetation height tended to be underestimated: approximately 0.50 m for vegetation heights less than 10 m, up to 1.50 m for tree heights higher than 25 m. Second, we applied this method to a wooded point bar located on the channelized River Garonne, France. At the scale of the point bar, accurate biogeomorphic maps that show terrain and vegetation height changes in all three spatial dimensions were produced and accurate vegetation growth curves from the early stages of establishment until maturity were extracted. Assuming that a set of conditions is satisfied (e.g. spatial scale of investigation, quality of the photographs), our results show that the photogrammetric method applied in this research can be used operationally to detect and quantify present fluvial biogeomorphic dynamics (i.e. changes of topography and vegetation canopy height) within fluvial corridors of temperate rivers with satisfactory accuracy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populations of the riparian pioneer species Populus nigra L. which establish on alluvial bars within river channels modulate sediment dynamics and fluvial landforms. Dense cohorts of P. nigra have colonized gravel point bars along the channelized River Garonne, France, during the last 20 years and have enhanced the vertical, lateral and longitudinal development of the bars. For this period, the geomorphic characteristics of two wooded point bars on this laterally stable river are closely linked to the spatial distribution and intensity of establishment and resistance of different cohorts of P. nigra. Furthermore, P. nigra colonization dynamics were controlled by engineer effects of this same species. This relationship is illustrated by a significant correlation between key geomorphic and biological variables measured in situ and characterized with a set of four aerial photographs taken between 2000 and 2010. The development of wooded point bars, which are discrete biogeomorphic units, over the studied period, appear to result from a specific biogeomorphic positive feedback of matter aggregation and vegetation establishment related to sediment trapping and stabilization by pioneer engineer plants. We propose a conceptual model of biogeomorphic unit construction for channelized, lateral stable rivers. We consider the resultant biogeomorphic units as functional from an ecological point of view because P. nigra enhances at the cohort scale (i) its own inherent capacity to resist hydrogeomorphic disturbances, and (ii) its resilience capacity as a result of successful colonization, especially downstream of mature poplar stands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Comparative assessment of stone weathering intensities and bioclimatic conditions was conducted at four temples located in cleared and forested sites of the Angkor Park, based on similar protocols. Four thousand sculpted lotus petals carved in the same grey sandstone were categorized by using two customized scales of weathering intensity, and climate monitoring was conducted from December 2008 to November 2009. Whereas 70% of the sandstone lotus petals are almost completely destroyed by mechanical weathering in cleared areas, 74% of petals located in forested environments appear to be totally free of mechanical weathering and are only affected by superficial biochemical weathering. Ambient conditions are also contrasting, with the magnitude of the diurnal surface temperature and relative humidity ranges being three times higher at cleared sites than in wooded areas. As wetting-drying cycles are the driving force of sandstone decay at Angkor, causal links are suggested between weathering and climate regimes. In wooded areas, the microclimate is buffered by the forest and the associated lithobionts, which maintain constant humidity levels, reduce thermal stresses at the stone surface and induce a slow biochemical weathering regime. In cleared areas, direct exposure to sunshine and monsoon rains induces pronounced wetting-drying cycles conducive to swelling-shrinking movements and other potential processes, provoking the rapid mechanical decay of the sandstone. Even if local damage can be caused by tree roots, the forest cover and the associated lithobionts obviously play an overall protective role. Additionally, microtopographical factors related to architectural designs and post-building events probably explain intra-site and between site minor differences in the amount of sandstone decay, by influencing key factors such as the water residence time at the stone surface. Last, the contrasting weathering regimes in forested and cleared sites are but a trend, for besides overwhelming mechanical weathering, chemical weathering is also operative at cleared sites, as indicated by salt efflorescences and ferric oxidation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]