Paleotopographic controls on loess deposition in the Loess Plateau of China

Abstract

The underlying pre‐existing paleotopography directly influences the loess deposition process and shapes the morphology of current loess landforms. An understanding of the controlling effects of the underlying paleotopography on loess deposition is critical to revealing the mechanism of loess‐landform formation. However, these controlling effects exhibit spatial variation as well as uncertainty, depending on a study's data sources, methodologies and particular research scope. In this study, the geological history of a study area in the Loess Plateau of China that is subject to severe soil erosion is investigated using detailed geological information and digital elevation models (DEMs), and an underlying paleotopographic model of the area is constructed. Based on the models of modern terrain and paleotopography, we introduce a watershed hierarchy method to investigate the spatial variation of the loess‐landform inheritance relationship and reveal the loess deposition process over different scales of drainage. The landform inheritance relationships were characterized using a terrain‐relief change index (TRCI) and a bedrock terrain controllability index (BTCI). The results show that the TRCI appears to have an inverse relationship with increasing research scope, indicating that, compared with the paleotopography of the region, modern terrain has lower topographic relief over the entire area, while it has higher topographic relief in the smaller, local areas. The BTCI strengthens with increasing drainage area, which demonstrates a strong controlling effect over the entire study area, but a weak effect in the smaller, local areas because of the effect of paleotopography on modern terrain. The results provide for an understanding of the spatial variation of loess deposition in relation to paleotopography and contribute to the development of a process‐based loess‐landform evolution model. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Spatial variation of gully development in the loess plateau of China based on the morphological perspective

“…As one of the most typical areas of loess deposit in the world, the Loess Plateau of China that features unique loess landform and severe soil erosion issue has attracted widespread attention for scholars in the fields of geomorphology, geology, hydrology, ecology, and soil and water conservation (Shi and Shao 2000;Hessel and van Asch 2003;Tang et al 2008; Li and Tang 2011;Wang et al 2013;Tang et al 2015;Xiong et al 2016). Gullies, as vessels of material and energy transportation during earth surface processes (Perron et al 2009;Willett et al 2014;Shruthi et al 2015;Xiong et al 2017), are the most active geomorphic units and widely distributed in the Loess Plateau and other regions (Korzeniowska et al 2018;Li et al 2019).…”

Topographic Spatial Variation Analysis of Loess Shoulder Lines in the Loess Plateau of China Based on MF-DFA

“…In recent years, the development of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) applications and Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial analysis techniques has greatly promoted the study of the land surface analysis of the Loess Plateau. Digital land surface analysis has been used to extract the basic terrain derivatives (e.g., slope and aspect) [15,16] and to study complicated applications (e.g., paleo-topographic reconstruction and landform classification) [17][18][19][20][21] of the Loess Plateau. The terrain points [22][23][24], lines [25][26][27], and surfaces [28][29][30] studies mainly focused on research with the view of developing and evaluating technologies and methods, and there is a lack of research and discussion on the role of terrain data in the study of the topography and geomorphology of the Loess Plateau.…”

Spatial variation in the frequency and magnitude of mass movement in a semiarid, complex‐terrain agricultural watershed on the Loess Plateau of China

“…Probably more important is its indirect impact via other factors such as the orientations of channels, the dipping angles of different layers of loesses and Red Earth, the principal directions of joints in the loess, and vegetation growth. The prevailing slope aspects for mass movement events are W and NW, which are perpendicular to the majority of the valleys that in turn are controlled by the paleotopograhy prior to the deposition of loess (Xiong, Tang, Strobl, & Zhu, ). DMMF decreases in the order of N > W > NW > E > SW > SE > NE > S > Flat, whereas DMMM decreases in the order of N > E > NE > NW > W > SE > SW > S > Flat (Table ).…”