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Abstract
Drainage density is a fundamental landscape metric describing the extent of the fluvial network. We compare the relationship between drainage density (Dd) and erosion rate (E) using the Channel-Hillslope Integrated Landscape Development (CHILD) numerical model. We find that varying the channel slope exponent (n) in detachment-limited fluvial incision models controls the relationship between Dd and E, with n > 1 resulting in increasing Dd with E if all other parameters are held constant. This result is consistent when modeling both linear and non-linear hillslope sediment flux. We also test the relationship between Dd and E in five soil-mantled landscapes throughout the USA: Feather River, CA; San Gabriel Mountains, CA; Boulder Creek, CO; Guadalupe Mountains, NM; and Bitterroot National Forest, ID. For two of these field sites we compare Dd to cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN)-derived erosion rates, and for each site we use mean hilltop curvature as a proxy for erosion rate where CRN-derived erosion rates are not available. We find that there is a significant positive relationship between Dd, E, and hilltop curvature across every site, with the exception of the San Gabriel Mountains, CA. This relationship is consistent with an n exponent greater than 1, suggesting that at higher erosion rates, the transition between advective and diffusive processes occurs at smaller contributing areas in soil mantled landscapes.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface |
Volume | 121 |
Issue number | 10 |
Early online date | 1 Aug 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2016 |
Keywords
- RESOLUTION TOPOGRAPHIC DATA
- STREAM POWER-LAW
- SIERRA-NEVADA
- HILLSLOPE EVOLUTION
- SOIL PRODUCTION
- RIVER INCISION
- LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGY
- SPATIAL VARIATION
- FLUVIAL INCISION
- PROFILE ANALYSIS
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LSDTopoTools
Mudd, S. (Creator), Hurst, M. D. (Creator), Milodowski, D. (Creator), Grieve, S. (Creator), Clubb, F. (Creator), Harel, M. (Creator), Valters, D. A. (Creator) & Gailleton, B. (Creator), Zenodo, 2017
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3769703, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3245076 and 2 more links, https://github.com/LSDtopotools/LSDTopoTools2, https://lsdtopotools.github.io/LSDTT_documentation (show fewer)
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Simon Mudd
- School of Geosciences - Personal Chair in Earth Surface Processes
Person: Academic: Research Active