Interactions between vegetation, water flow and sediment transport: A review

The vegetation, as one of the most important components, plays a key role in the aquatic environment. This paper reviews recent progress on the complex interaction between the vegetation and the water flow. Meanwhile, the relationships between the vegetation and the sediment transport are discussed. The vegetation characteristics, such as the shape, the flexibility and the height, have significant effects on the flow structures. The density and the arrangement of the vegetation influence the flow velocity in varying degrees and the flow resistance increases with the increase of the plant density. In turns, the growth of aquatic plants is influenced by the water flow via the direct effect (stretching, breakage, uprooting, etc.) and the indirect effect (changes in gas exchange, bed material distribution, sediment resuspension etc.). Numerical models were developed and widely used for the flow through vegetated waterways, and the results could be applied to solve engineering problems in practice. The sediment is essential for the survival of most vegetation. The existence of the vegetation helps to resist the deformation and the erosion of the bed sediment, to maintain the bed stability and to improve the water quality by removing suspended particles. Additionally, the effects of the sediment transport on the growth of the vegetation mainly consist of the reduction of their photosynthetic capacity by decreasing the water transparency and hindering the exchange of gas and nutrients between plants and water by attaching particles to plant leaves. Therefore, the interaction between the vegetation and the sediment transport is great and complicated. In order to establish a healthy aquatic ecosystem, it is important to study the relationships between the vegetation, the water flow and the sediment transport.