29 Semi-alluvial Channels and Sediment-Flux-Driven Bedrock Erosion

摘要

In the last decade research on bedrock channels and fluvial erosion has seen a remarkable increase in interest. It was recognized that these channels play a key role in the evolution of the whole landscape. They set the baselevel for hillslope response, control the relief of a region, and are important agents of sediment transport (Whipple, 2004). The idea of a dynamic coupling between climatedriven erosion and tectonics received wide interest in the 1990s (Molnar and England, 1990; Willett, 1999), and triggered intensive research into bedrock channels and fluvial erosion. Fluvial geomorphologists have recognized that bedrock channels behave quite differently from alluvial channels, which river research had focused on for many decades (Tinkler and Wohl, 1998; Wohl and Merritt, 2001; Richardson and Carling, 2006).