Unsteady State Denudation

Schumm, S. A.; Mosley, M. P.; Zimpfer, G. L.

doi:10.1126/science.191.4229.871

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…climate changes or human interventions) is generally known to be complex and difficult to predict (e.g. Schumm et al 1976;Walling & Kleo 1979;Church & Slaymaker 1989;Walling 2006;Owens et al 2010;Trimble 2010). SY at the catchment scale and its response to changes are, however, of great importance as it relates to many environmental and management issues (see Owens et al 2005 for an overview) and are also of great relevance in the framework of desertification assessment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sediment yield as a desertification risk indicator

Vanmaercke

Poesen

Maetens

et al. 2011

Science of The Total Environment

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Soil erosion is often regarded as one of the main processes of desertification. This has lead to the use of various desertification indicators that are related to soil erosion. Most of these indicators focus, however, on small spatial units, while little attention has been given to the amount of sediment exported at the catchment scale. Such a small spatial unit approach neglects the transfer of sediment through catchments as well as the scale-dependency of erosion processes. Furthermore, this approach does not consider important off-site impacts of soil erosion, such as sediment deposition in reservoirs, flooding as well as ecological impacts.This study aims to illustrate the importance of also considering catchment sediment yield (SY, t km -2 y -1 ) in desertification assessment studies. Based on recently established databases of SY and soil loss rates in Europe and examples from previous studies, we illustrate that soil erosion rates at the plot scale are not representative for catchment SY, as they are often several orders of magnitude smaller. Also, the erosion response of catchments to changes in land use or climate often differs strongly from responses to those changes at the plot scale.We further discuss several of the impacts of SY and their link with desertification: i.e. the sedimentation of reservoirs, problems related to flooding, catchment hydrology, export of nutrients and ecological implications.Using earlier established criteria we evaluate the potential for using catchment SY as a desertification indicator and conclude that this could give an important added value to desertification studies. SY, used in combination with other indicators, allows the identification of other sediment sources than those considered at the plot scale and can reflect the results of desertification processes over longer time periods than periods over which assessments at the plot scale have been made. We argue therefore, that SY is a strong complementary indicator of desertification providing valuable information on the catchment response to changes in drivers of desertification.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sediment yield as a desertification risk indicator

Vanmaercke

Poesen

Maetens

et al. 2011

Science of The Total Environment

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“…These influences are further complicated by the fact that there may not be a steady state equilibrium between sediment supply and transport because of storage within the system. This means that denudation rates determined from downstream sediment yields may not be synchronous with rates of erosion in upland areas [Schumm et al, 1976;Trimble, 1975Trimble, , 1977. However, Summerfield and Hulton [1994] have shown that, if anthropogenic effects are 27,091 Long-term continental scale denudation is a complex response to tectonic and erosional processes but will be recorded in rocks as a cooling history, as overburden is progressively removed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accelerated denudation and tectonic/geomorphic reactivation of the cratons of northeastern Brazil during the Late Cretaceous

Harman¹,

Gallagher²,

Brown³

et al. 1998

J. Geophys. Res.

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“…Generally, the smaller the stream area and shorter the time period, the more applicable should be the steady state assumption. Some geomorphologists (Trimble, 1975;Schumm et al, 1975;Maddock, 1976) argue that a drainage basin can not be considered as being at steady state at any particular point in its history. Leopold and Maddock (1953) proposed that a tendency toward steady state existed for certain physical properties of streams, and that adjustments between changing streamflow variables could be defined by power function equations.…”

Section: Temporal and Spatial Problems In Esti~~ting And Interpretingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stream Ecology

1983

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Unsteady State Denudation

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

Sediment yield as a desertification risk indicator

Sediment yield as a desertification risk indicator

Accelerated denudation and tectonic/geomorphic reactivation of the cratons of northeastern Brazil during the Late Cretaceous

Stream Ecology

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