Strong feedbacks exist between channel dynamics, floodplain development, and riparian vegetation. Earlier experimental studies showed how uniformly distributed riparian vegetation causes a shift from a braided to a single‐thread river because riparian vegetation stabilizes the banks and focuses discharge off the floodplains into channels. These experiments tested anemochorously distributed vegetation, i.e., by wind, whereas many riparian species in nature are also distributed hydrochorously, i.e., by flowing water. The objective of this study is to test experimentally what the different effects are of hydrochorously and anemochorously distributed vegetation on channel pattern and dynamics. The experiments were carried out in a flume of 3 m wide and 10 m long. We compared experiments with the two forms of vegetation distribution methods to control experiments without vegetation. To independently quantify bank retreat rate as a function of seed density and vegetation age, we used a small bank erosion test. In agreement with other work, the uniformly distributed vegetation decreased bank retreat, often stabilized banks and tightened meander bends. Vegetation seeds distributed by the flow during floods settled at lower elevations compared to the uniformly distributed vegetation. Inner bend vegetation stabilized a part of the point bar and hydraulic resistance of the vegetated bar forced water into the channel and over the floodplain. As a result, sediment was deposited upstream of vegetation patches. We conclude that seeds distributed by the flow during floods lead to island braiding: a patchy multithread river with stable vegetated bars, whereas vegetation uniformly distributed on the floodplain of a single‐thread meandering river increases sinuosity and decreases bend wavelength. This implies that the combination of discharge variations and vegetation settling behavior has a large effect on the morphology and dynamics of rivers. The experimental approach opens up a wide range of possibilities to explore hydro‐bio‐geomorphological interactions with a high degree of control.

One of the most striking features of meandering rivers are quasi-regular ridges of the point bar, evidence of a pulsed lateral migration of meander bends. Scroll bars formed on the inner bend are preserved on the point-bar surface as a series of ridges as meanders migrate, and in the subsurface of the point bar as inclined heterolithic stratification with lateral accretion surfaces. It is necessary to understand the formation and sedimentary architecture of these point bars, which are fundamental geomorphic building blocks of meandering rivers and potential reservoirs for water, oil, and gas. However, it remains unresolved whether the scroll-bar pattern forms in response to outer bend bank erosion during floods (i.e., bank pull), or is forced by bank progradation (i.e., bar push). Here we use experimentally formed meandering rivers with a set of static and migrating bends to isolate the effects of sediment supply to the point bar, bank protection, and forced bank retreat. We find that channel widening caused by bank retreat near the bend apex causes deposition of new scroll ridges along the inner bend point bar, whereas scroll bars cannot be forced by sediment pulses. Thus channel width variations along meander bends cause bank pull, which is necessary for scroll-bar formation. Furthermore, we find that each newly attached scroll bar overlies a nonpermeable layer of finer-grained sediment caused by the temporary flow expansion, which explains the fining-upward tendency of point bars

Braided rivers are relatively simple to produce in the laboratory, whereas dynamic meandering rivers have not been sustained beyond initial bend formation. Meandering is theoretically explained by bend instability growing from planimetric perturbation, which convects downstream. In this study, we experimentally tested the importance of upstream perturbation and chute cutoff development in the evolution and dynamics of a meandering channel pattern. The initial straight channel had a transversely moving upstream inlet point and silt‐sized silica flour was added to the sediment feed to allow floodplain formation. We obtained a dynamic meandering river with scroll bars. Bend growth was alternated by chute cutoffs that formed across the point bars. Meandering was maintained as one channel was disconnected by a plug bar. The curvature at the chute bifurcation transported sediment and build a new floodplain, while the other channel widens. At the end of the experiment, the fluvial plain exhibited a meandering channel, point bars, chutes and abandoned and partially filled channels with a slightly cohesive floodplain surface similar to natural meandering gravel bed rivers. We conclude that the necessary and sufficient conditions for dynamic meandering gravel bed river are a sustained dynamic upstream perturbation and floodplain formation.

The morphological development of fluvial and tidal systems is forecast more and more frequently by models in scientific and engineering studies for decision making regarding climate change mitigation, flood control, navigation and engineering works. However, many existing morphodynamic models predict unrealistically high channel incision, which is often dampened by increased gravity-driven sediment transport on side-slopes by up to two orders of magnitude too high. Here we show that such arbitrary calibrations dramatically bias sediment dynamics, channel patterns, and rate of morphological change. For five different models bracketing a range of scales and environments, we found that it is impossible to calibrate a model on both sediment transport magnitude and morphology. Consequently, present calibration practice may cause an order magnitude error in either morphology or morphological change. We show how model design can be optimized for different applications. We discuss the major implications for model interpretation and a critical knowledge gap.