Self-organization of tidal deltas
- Department of Earth Sciences and Center for Computational Science, Boston University, Boston, MA 02122
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Edited by Paolo D'odorico, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, and accepted by the Editorial Board October 16, 2008 (received for review July 10, 2008)
Abstract
Tidal deltas are characterized by a dendritic network of distributaries that transport water and sediments to the ocean. Here, I show that the distributaries self-organize to uniformly redistribute the tidal prism across the entire delta system. The 2 opposite mechanisms of channel formation by avulsion and channel abandonment drive the entire delta toward a critical state at which every channel is close to the silting threshold. Under these conditions the delta reaches self-organized criticality, with changes of its planimetric channel distribution occurring across several spatial scales.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sergio{at}bu.edu
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Author contributions: S.F. designed research, performed research, contributed new reagents/analytic tools, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
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The author declares no conflict of interest.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. P.D. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0806668105/DCSupplemental.
- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
