Growth conditions and eco‐engineering effects of vegetation on local conditions in coastal environments have been extensively studied. However, interactions between salt marsh settling, growth, and mortality as a function of hydromorphology and eco‐engineering lack sufficient understanding to forecast morphological development of dynamic systems. We predict salt marsh establishment with an ecomorphodynamic model that accounts for literature‐based seasonal settling and life‐stage‐dependent growth and mortality of a generic salt marsh species. The model was coupled to a calibrated hydromorphodynamic model of an intertidal bar and, on a coarser grid, to the entire Western Scheldt estuary. To quantify the importance of eco‐engineering effects we compared the dynamic model results to a static model approach. The ecomorphodynamic model reproduces spatial pattern, cover, and growth trends over 15 years. The modeled vegetation cover emerges from the combination of a positive and a new negative eco‐engineering effect: vegetation reduces tidal flow strength facilitating plant survival while the developing salt marsh increases the hydroperiod, which limits large‐scale marsh expansion. The reproduced spatial gradient in vegetation density by our model is strongly correlated to their life‐stages, which underlines the importance of age‐dependence when modeling vegetation and for predictions of the stability of the marsh. Upscaling of the model to the entire estuary on a coarser grid gives implications for grid size‐dependent modeling of hydrodynamics and vegetation. In comparison with static model results, the eco‐engineering effects reduce vegetation cover, showing the importance of vegetation dynamics for predictions of salt marsh growth.

At the transition between mudflat and salt marsh, vegetation is traditionally regarded as a sustaining factor for previously incised mudflat channels, able to conserve the channel network via bank stabilization following plant colonization (i.e., vegetation‐stabilized channel inheritance). This is in contrast to recent studies revealing vegetation as the main driver of tidal channel emergence through vegetation‐induced channel erosion. We present a coupled hydrodynamic morphodynamic plant growth model to simulate plant expansion and channel formation by our model species (Spartina alterniflora) during a mudflat‐salt marsh transition with various initial bathymetries (flat, shoal dense, shoal sparse, and deep dense channels). This simulated landscape development is then compared to remote sensing images of the Yangtze estuary, China, and the Scheldt estuary in Netherlands. Our results propose the existence of a threshold in preexisting mudflat channel depth, which favors either vegetation‐stabilized channel inheritance or vegetation‐induced channel erosion processes. The increase in depth of preexisting mudflat channels favors flow routing through them, consequently leaving less flow and momentum remaining for vegetation‐induced channel erosion processes. This threshold channel depth will be influenced by field specific parameters such as hydrodynamics (tidal range and flow), sediment characteristics, and plant species. Hence, our study shows that the balance between vegetation‐stabilized channel inheritance and vegetation‐induced channel erosion depends on ecosystem properties.

Coastal wetlands fulfil important functions for biodiversity conservation and coastal protection, which are inextricably linked to typical morphological features like tidal channels. Channel network configurations in turn are shaped by bio-geomorphological feedbacks between vegetation, hydrodynamics and sediment transport. This study investigates the impact of two starkly different recruitment strategies between mangroves (fast/homogenous) and salt marshes (slow/patchy) on channel network properties. We first compare channel networks found in salt marshes and mangroves around the world and then demonstrate how observed channel patterns can be explained by vegetation establishment strategies using controlled experimental conditions. We find that salt marshes are dissected by more extensive channel networks and have shorter over-marsh flow paths than mangrove systems, while their branching patterns remain similar. This finding is supported by our laboratory experiments, which reveal that different recruitment strategies of mangroves and salt marshes hamper or facilitate channel development, respectively. Insights of our study are crucial to understand wetland resilience with rising sea-levels especially under climate-driven ecotone shifts.