Recent theoretical investigations suggest that the rate of river incision into bedrock depends nonlinearly on sediment supply, challenging the common assumption that incision rate is simply proportional to stream power. Our measurements from laboratory abrasion mills support the hypothesis that sediment promotes erosion at low supply rates by providing tools for abrasion, but inhibits erosion a...

This study identifies and assesses the controls on hydraulic erosion of cohesive riverbanks on a 600-m reach of an urban ephemeral stream with active bank erosion. We examined hydraulic bank erosion by separating estimated bank shear stress into four properties: magnitude, duration, event peak, and variability. The values of these independent variables were used as a bank erosion context at thr...

In the Mediterranean region there is growing concern for the potential increase in erosion risk associated with climate change and increasing storm frequency. The central Ebro basin is the region facing the greatest problems of desertification in northern Spain and there is a need to assemble information on short-term erosion rates associated with individual storm events. The Be technique offer...

Since the late nineteenth century, it has been debated whether rivers or glaciers are more effective agents of erosion1. The dramatic landscapes associated with glaciated terrain have often led to the argument that glaciers are more erosive than rivers, and recent studies have documented the topographic signature of an ice-controlled limit of mountain height known as the ‘glacial buzz-saw’2,3. ...

Soil erosion is a crucial problem in Nepal where more than 80% of the land area is mountainous and still tectonically active. Although deforestation, overgrazing and intensive agriculture, due to population pressure, have caused accelerated erosion, natural phenomena inducing erosion, such as exceptional rains, earthquakes and glacial-lake-outburst flooding in the high Himalayas are also common...

One of the most frequently quoted ecosystem services of seagrass meadows is their value for coastal protection. Many studies emphasize the role of above-ground shoots in attenuating waves, enhancing sedimentation and preventing erosion. This raises the question if short-leaved, low density (grazed) seagrass meadows with most of their biomass in belowground tissues can also stabilize sediments. ...