2.1. The Western Scheldt domain

To compare species predictions of the macrobenthic species with field data, we used a calibrated and optimized hydro‐morphodynamic model of the lower Western Scheldt estuary (Nevla‐model; for more information see Vroom et al. (2015), Schrijvershof & Vroom (2016), and Brückner et al. (2020)). The model was adapted from the generic vegetation simulation in Brückner et al. (2020) (bathymetry of 2008) with enhanced mud deposition on the bars. We computed the species distributions on the initial hydro‐morphodynamic domain that provides values for the environmental parameters that define species growth. This one‐time simulation was used to validate trends in species predictions before the idealized model domain was applied to test our hypotheses.