ArticleNature communications2023
Early indicators of tidal ecosystem shifts in estuaries.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Recommendations for the development of erosion-resistant tidal marshes to enhance nature-based flood risk mitigation.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Review
- Hydro-geomorphological drivers across scales shape the trajectory of coastal wetland restoration.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Remote Sensing Inversion of Full-Profile Topography Data for Coastal Wetlands Using Synergistic Multi-Platform Sensors from Space, Air, and Ground.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Plant species, inundation, and sediment grain size control the development of sediment stability in tidal marshes.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Cross-shore parallel tidal channel systems formed by alongshore currents.Nature communications · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Forecasting transitions between tidal ecosystem states, such as between bare tidal flats and vegetated marshes, is crucial because it may imply the irreversible loss of valuable ecosystem services. In this study, we combine geospatial analyses of three European estuaries with a simple numerical model to demonstrate that the development of micro-topographic patterning on tidal flats is an early indicator of marsh establishment. We first show that the development of micro-topographic patterns precedes vegetation establishment, and that patterns tend to form only on tidal flats with a slope of <0.3 degrees. Numerical modelling then provides an explanation for the formation of micro-topography due to the natural concentration of draining surface water over very gentle slopes. We find this early indicator to be robust across three estuaries where anthropogenic deepening and narrowing has occurred in recent decades, which may suggest its broader applicability to other estuaries with similar morphological management.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
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