Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: The uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia

The higher order channel of the mid-uplands is a mobile, low-sinuosity, single-thread arroyo, incised into wide muddy unstable floodplains. Fluvial processes are dominated by episodic flood-driven channel avulsion, and variability in stream energy and boundary resistance contributes to a non-equilibrium fluvial style. Frequent reach-scale channel relocation is accompanied by the burial of the abandoned channel in floodplain muds and both erosion and aggradation in downstream floodplains.