Intratidal variability in stratification, referred to as internal tidal asymmetry, affects the residual sediment flux of an estuary by altering sediment transport differently during ebb and flood. While earlier studies suggest that flood-dominant mixing increases the residual landward sediment flux, the role of ebb-dominant mixing remains largely unknown. Based on field data, we investigate the mechanisms that cause ebb-dominant mixing and its effect on the residual sediment flux in a stratified estuarine channel. Observations based on two tidal cycles show that the pycnocline remains largely intact during flood. Vertical mixing during flood is inhibited by a strong fresh water outflow, confining landward transport of suspended sediment to the bottom layer. During ebb, the pycnocline height decreases until it interacts with the bottom boundary layer, resulting in enhanced vertical mixing and sediment transport extending further to the surface. Thus, ebb-dominant mixing increases the residual sediment flux in seaward direction. The long ebb period further contributes to the residual ebb-flux. This is noteworthy since a long ebb duration, as it corresponds to flood dominance, is often associated with a landward residual sediment flux. Although our data represent average conditions and may not be representative for high river discharge or storm conditions, we conclude that asymmetries in vertical mixing considerably affect the residual sediment flux.

Geometric characteristics of subaqueous bedforms, such as height, length and leeside angle, are crucial for determining hydraulic form roughness and interpreting sedimentary records. Traditionally, bedform existence and geometry predictors are primarily based on uniform, cohesionless sediments. However, mixtures of sand, silt and clay are common in deltaic, estuarine, and lowland river environments, where bedforms are ubiquitous. Therefore, we investigate the impact of fine sand and silt in sand-silt mixtures on bedform geometry, based on laboratory experiments conducted in a recirculating flume. We systematically varied the content of sand and silt for different discharges, and utilized a UB-Lab 2C (a type of acoustic Doppler velocimeter) to measure flow velocity profiles. The final bed geometry was captured using a line laser scanner. Our findings reveal that the response of bedforms to an altered fine sediment percentage is ambiguous, and depends on, among others, bimodality-driven bed mobility and sediment cohesiveness. When fine, non-cohesive material (fine sand or coarse silt) is mixed with the base material (medium sand), the hiding-exposure effect comes into play, resulting in enhanced mobility of the coarser material and leading to an increase in dune height and length. However, the addition of weakly-cohesive fine silt reduces the mobility, suppressing dune height and length. Finally, in the transition from dunes to upper stage plane bed, the bed becomes unstable and bedform heights vary over time. The composition of the bed material does not significantly impact the hydraulic roughness, but mainly affects roughness via the bed morphology, especially the leeside angle.