Abstract The cycle of channel belt widening and narrowing, driven by changes in sediment supply relative to sediment transport capacity, leads to the formation and preservation of strath terraces, where channel lateral erosion typically plays a key role. Because channel widths were mostly ignored, few models can explain how strath terraces in bedrock valley form under external forcing. Here, we present a modified fluvial erosion‐deposition landscape evolution model that incorporates channel width, governed by water discharge and slope. Focusing on climate‐driven strath terraces, our model explicitly simulates channel width variations induced by climate‐driven changes in discharge, assuming uniform uplift and lithology. Results show that increased channel width constants amplify the influence of climate signals on sediments because the same water discharge is distributed across more channel nodes, reducing the transport capacity. Moreover, our model shows that strath terraces form as the climate shifts from wet to dry, considering channel width and sediment deposition. When the climate shifts from dry to wet conditions, channel widening erodes the former valley walls and destroys pre‐existing strath terraces, generating planation surfaces. This lateral erosion in our model results from channel widening, rather than channel mobility. Bedrock straths are subsequently exposed during channel narrowing. Our model has the potential to elucidate the evolution of bedrock valley and channel width, under the influence of tectonics, climate, rock properties, and sediment thickness on valley geometry.
He et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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