These findings are crucial for floodplain management strategies with the aim to increase sediment retention. We further found that vegetation biomass positively affected the sedimentation on and underneath the vegetation. The sedimentation underneath the vegetation was explained by the structural diversity and the leaf pubescence (total R 2 = 0.11). Our results showed that all manipulated vegetation properties combined (vegetation density and height, and the interaction of structural diversity and leaf pubescence) explained sedimentation on the vegetation (total R 2 = 0.34). ![]() We quantified the sediment by washing it off the biomass and off the fleece, drying the sediment and weighting it. We inundated the vegetation patches for 21 h in a flume with silt- and clay-rich water and subsequently measured the amount of accumulated sediment on the vegetation and on a fleece as ground underneath it. We planted two grass and two herb species in each patch and conducted a full-factorial manipulation of 1) vegetation density, 2) vegetation height, 3) structural diversity (small-tall vs tall-tall species combinations) and 4) leaf pubescence (based on trait information). In a hydraulic flume experiment, we investigated this by disentangling sedimentation on and underneath 96 vegetation patches (40 cm x 60 cm). ![]() ![]() We aim to understand which structural properties of the vegetation are most important for capturing sediments. Floodplain vegetation is an important driver of fine sediment retention. Sediment retention is a key ecosystem function provided by floodplains to filter sediments and nutrients from the river water during floods.
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