River delta slope offshore, waves will make river deltas smoother. Waves can also be responsible for carrying sediments away from the river delta, causing the delta to retreat. For deltas that form further upriver in an estuary, there are complex yet quantifiable linkages between winds, tides, river discharge, and delta water levels. Erosion is also an important control in tide-dominated deltas, such as the Ganges Delta, which may be mainly submarine, with prominent sandbars and ridges. This tends to produce a "dendritic" structure. Tidal deltas behave differently from a river- and wave-dominated deltas, which tend to have a few main distributaries. Once
Colorado River Delta for harvesting Palmer's saltgrass ("Distichlis palmeri"), a wild grain which grows in salty soil; and for cultivating maize (corn), beans, and squash. Today, conditions in the delta have changed. Like other desert river deltas, such as the Nile Delta and the Indus River Delta, the Colorado River delta has been greatly altered by human activity. Decades of dam construction and water diversions in the United States and Mexico has reduced the delta to a remnant system of small wetlands and brackish mudflats. As reservoirs filled behind dams and captured floodwaters, freshwater could no longer reach the delta. The construction of