Vegetation steers a river's path Evolution of plants could have modified ancient river trajectories

• 成果类型: Editorial Material
• 署名作者: Pizzuto, Jim
• 署名单位: University of Delaware
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-11336
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aea2382
• 发表日期: 2025-08-28
• 页码: 879-880
• 关键词: bar push; migration; width

摘要

Vegetation in river valleys slows floodplain erosion rates (1), reduces river channel widths (2), and drives a transition from braided, multichannel rivers to single-channel, meandering rivers (3). These changes also control carbon sequestration and other biogeochemical processes along river channels (4). On page 915 of this issue, Hasson et al. (5) report a new way in which floodplain vegetation-the plant life found in flat land adjacent to a river-controls river dynamics. Meandering rivers in floodplains without vegetation tend to migrate downstream (parallel to the overall river flow direction), whereas meandering rivers with vegetated floodplains are likely to expand outward (across river valleys). The findings resolve conflicting interpretations of early Paleozoic (>419 million years ago) river deposits, which were formed before the evolution of land plants, and challenge current understanding of river meandering on Earth and other planetary bodies.