Which mechanism causes increased stream meandering downstream when floodplain gradient decreases?

💡 Explanation

When the gradient decreases, stream competence reduces because the ability to carry sediment diminishes due to lowered velocity, thereby increasing lateral or side-to-side erosion and downstream meandering. Therefore, reduced gradient alters local channel erosion, rather than lowered channel stability, heightened shear stress,/bankfull discharge altering the river.

• Which outcome results when aseismic creep is interrupted?
• Which outcome occurs when freshwater inflow reduces surface density within an ocean gyre?
• Which outcome occurs when a rapidly eroding mountain range deposits sediment onto a flat plain?
• Which atmospheric phenomenon is intensified from the Foehn effect, leading to increased wildfire risk?
• Which mechanism accelerates sediment deposition at the seaward mouth of a fjord system following deglaciation?
• Which primary mechanism leads to the isolation and eventual formation of an oxbow lake?