High rates of erosion and rapid weathering in a Plio-Pleistocene mudstone badland, Taiwan

Higuchi, Kohei; Chigira, Masahiro; Lee, Der Her

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2012.11.005

Cited by 38 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In badland, desiccation cracks occur on the slope surfaces extending to a few centimeters in the dry season. During the rainy season, the soil expands and closes the cracks to form crusts in 1–2 cm thick3. Soils in the three studied locations have high clay and silt contents (clay: 27–44%; slit: 31–47%), primarily inherited from the parent mudrock.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Moreover, in badland soils, sodium and chlorine have been found to concentrate near soil surface during the dry season, which creates repulsive forces among soil particles, causing the soil to become rock-hard. On the other hand, during the rainy season, soils swell and soften upon water saturation, which has been shown to accelerate surface erosion3. Concentrated sodium and chlorine in this type of soil also increase soil electric conductivity, rendering it inhospitable to plant growth, resulting in bare landscapes in most badland ecosystems.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Improvement in the biochemical and chemical properties of badland soils by thorny bamboo

Shiau

Wang

Chen

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Badland soils—which have high silt and clay contents, bulk density, and soil electric conductivity— cover a large area of Southern Taiwan. This study evaluated the amelioration of these poor soils by thorny bamboo, one of the few plant species that grows in badland soils. Soil physiochemical and biological parameters were measured from three thorny bamboo plantations and nearby bare lands. Results show that bamboo increased microbial C and N, soil acid-hydrolysable C, recalcitrant C, and soluble organic C of badland soils. High microbial biomass C to total organic C ratio indicates that soil organic matter was used more efficiently by microbes colonizing bamboo plantations than in bare land soils. High microbial respiration to biomass C ratio in bare land soils confirmed environmentally induced stress. Soil microbes in bare land soils also faced soil organic matter with the high ratio of recalcitrant C to total organic C. The high soil acid-hydrolysable C to total organic C ratio at bamboo plantations supported the hypothesis that decomposition of bamboo litter increased soil C in labile fractions. Overall, thorny bamboo improved soil quality, thus, this study demonstrates that planting thorny bamboo is a successful practice for the amelioration of badland soils.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvement in the biochemical and chemical properties of badland soils by thorny bamboo

Shiau

Wang

Chen

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…Furthermore, outside of the Mediterranean region in a badland area located in Taiwan, erosion pins were also used to determine the erosion rates over a period of 4 years. The results showed an average erosion rate of 9 cm/y, which, according to the literature, can be considered very fast (Higuchi et al, 2013).…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 57%

Assessing, measuring and modelling erosion in calanchi areas: a review

Caraballo-Arias¹,

Ferro²

2016

J Agricult Engineer

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Calanchi are erosion landforms characterised by a heavily dissected terrain with steep, unvegetated slopes and channels with a dendritic pattern, which rapidly incise and extend headwards. Recent literature focusing on badland systems highlights their similarity with other larger fluvial landforms, stating that these behave as a full size laboratory, due to their rapid development in space and time and to the diversity of geomorphic processes involved.In this paper, a brief review of the most important results on badland research is firstly presented. Then, the morphometric similarity between calanchi and other erosion landforms is discussed. Finally, models quantitatively relating the volume of sediments eroded from calanchi landforms and a set of geometric features of their tributary areas, by exploiting the dimensional analysis and the self-similarity theory, are presented.

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“…In contrast, reforestation as a protection of the land surface can reduce the area of badlands and the expected erosion rate [3,4]. In tropical monsoon areas, badlands in Taiwan caused extensive landslides, mudflow [5], and denudation rates of around 9-13 cm per year [6], resulting in the Erren river, with its drainage area mostly in the mudstone badlands, having the highest mean sediment yield in the world of over 10 5 t/km 2 /yr [7]. Therefore, simple and systematic constraints on erosion help to improve the understanding of interactions of the lithosphere and the hydrosphere in topography.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Badland Erosion and Its Morphometric Features in the Tropical Monsoon Area

et al. 2019

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Climatically driven processes are important controls on the Earth’s surface and on interactions between the hydrological cycle and erosion in drainage basins. As a result, landscape forms such as hillslope topography can be used as an archive to reconstruct historical climatic conditions. Recent progress in the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric technique allows for the construction of high-resolution, low-cost topography data using remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys. Here, we present the climatic effects on the hillslope erosion rate that can be obtained from the drainage frequency of hillslopes. We quantify the centimeter-scale accuracy of surveys across 72 badland hillslopes in SE Taiwan, which is a tropical monsoon area with an annual precipitation of over 2 m. Our observations indicate that climatic erosion results in a higher drainage frequency and the number of furrows, instead of drainage density. Additionally, the morphometric slope index (MSI) has a strong positive correlation with erosion and its rate but shows a negative correlation with drainage length and a positive correlation with inclination. This suggests that the erosion pattern is due to gravitational mass wasting instead of hydrological erosion. MSI should always be calculated relying on the normalized slope length and is less applicable to landslide-dominated erosion. We, therefore, suggest that UAV-driven digital elevation models (DEMs) are integrated into erosion mapping to aid in identifying erosion patterns. We highlight the unique opportunity for cross-climate zone comparative studies offered by badland landscapes and differential rainfall patterns, with remote sensing techniques and the morphometric slope index.

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High rates of erosion and rapid weathering in a Plio-Pleistocene mudstone badland, Taiwan

Cited by 38 publications

References 22 publications

Improvement in the biochemical and chemical properties of badland soils by thorny bamboo

Improvement in the biochemical and chemical properties of badland soils by thorny bamboo

Assessing, measuring and modelling erosion in calanchi areas: a review

Badland Erosion and Its Morphometric Features in the Tropical Monsoon Area

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