Processes of tidal channel development in salt and freshwater marshes

Mechanisms for the formation of creeks in tidal flats are rarely discussed in literature. There are some general theories about their formation but there are no data to support the evidence. It is generally believed that marshes inherit creeks from previous tidal flats that their plants colonize and further modify them. The aim of this paper is to present three mutually exclusive cases from marshes in Argentina where creeks are formed by either purely physical or biological-physical interactions. Except for Loyola Bay, this is the first discussion of these mechanisms. They may represent special cases, but the fact that all three of them occur along the coast of Argentina, could indicate that similar cases may be found somewhere else. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.