Fig. 2: Interplay between Shields stress, clay deposition, and bedform morphodynamics.
From: Bedform segregation and locking increase storage of natural and synthetic particles in rivers
a Three examples of distributions of bedform celerity prior to (solid) and following (dashed) clay addition for low (blue), medium (yellow), and high (red) Shields stresses. The bedform celerity distribution decreases following clay deposition, and the reduction is more pronounced under smaller imposed fluid shear (blue lines). b Normalized bedform celerity decreases with the bedform stabilization ratio \(\psi =\frac{M}{{\tau }_{* }}\), indicating that the observed morphodynamic changes reflect a balance between cohesive forces and the fluid Shields stress. Points represent the average of the 100 h of bedform celerity data. Linear fit (R2 = 0.93) with 95% confidence interval is shown. This relationship is consistent for both locking (stabilization dominated) and segregating (mobilization dominated) conditions.
