Fig. 1: The natural autogenic behaviour of an experimental delta system.
From: Morphodynamic limits to environmental signal propagation across landscapes and into strata
a Topographic scan and co-registered digital image of experiment TDB-20 at run time 532 h dissected to show underlying synthetic strata. Warm and cool colours represent strata deposited during a peak and trough of sediment supply respectively. b Diagram outlining the autogenic threshold function (ATF); the position of maximum autogenic rates as a function of time (dashed black line). The ATF separates regions where sediment input signals, Qin*(T*), would be shredded by autogenic processes (salmon red) and a region where Qin*(T*) would be transferred to strata (green). White circles on the ATF diagram represent two example threshold conditions as depicted on the right. Each example shows how two different Qin*(T*) conditions are either shredded (signal remains in red) or transferred to strata (signal surpasses threshold to occupy green). Note that in this way the ATF can assess the likelihood of any combination of magnitude–period Qin*(T*) being transferred to strata. Region of grey diagonal line fill represents phase space where Earth surface signal (ESS) is detectable in the active layer (i.e. geomorphological change) but not in strata. Diagram generated using the data set of Toby et al.
