Modeling long-term, large-scale sediment storage using a simple sediment budget approach

Abstract. Currently, the anthropogenic perturbation of the biogeochemical cycles remains unquantified due to the poor representation of lateral fluxes of carbon and nutrients in Earth system models (ESMs). This lateral transport of carbon and nutrients between terrestrial ecosystems is strongly affected by accelerated soil erosion rates. However, the quantification of global soil erosion by rainfall and runoff, and the resulting redistribution is missing. This study aims at developing new tools and methods to estimate global soil erosion and redistribution by presenting and evaluating a new large-scale coarse-resolution sediment budget model that is compatible with ESMs. This model can simulate spatial patterns and long-term trends of soil redistribution in floodplains and on hillslopes, resulting from external forces such as climate and land use change. We applied the model to the Rhine catchment using climate and land cover data from the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) for the last millennium (here AD 850–2005). Validation is done using observed Holocene sediment storage data and observed scaling between sediment storage and catchment area. We find that the model reproduces the spatial distribution of floodplain sediment storage and the scaling behavior for floodplains and hillslopes as found in observations. After analyzing the dependence of the scaling behavior on the main parameters of the model, we argue that the scaling is an emergent feature of the model and mainly dependent on the underlying topography. Furthermore, we find that land use change is the main contributor to the change in sediment storage in the Rhine catchment during the last millennium. Land use change also explains most of the temporal variability in sediment storage in floodplains and on hillslopes.

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Modelling long-term, large-scale sediment storage using a simple sediment budget approach

10.5194/esurf-2015-57 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

V. Naipal ◽

C. Reick ◽

K. Van Oost ◽

T. Hoffmann ◽

J. Pongratz

Keyword(s):

Catchment Area ◽

Large Scale ◽

Anthropogenic Disturbances ◽

Biogeochemical Cycles ◽

Earth System ◽

Sediment Storage ◽

Scaling Relationships ◽

Soil Redistribution ◽

Rhine Catchment

Abstract. Currently, the anthropogenic disturbances to the biogeochemical cycles remain unquantiﬁed due to the poor representation of lateral ﬂuxes of carbon and nutrients in Earth System Models (ESMs) that couple the terrestrial and ocean systems. Soil redistribution plays an important role in the transport of carbon and nutrients between terrestrial ecosystems, however, quantiﬁcation of soil redistribution and its effects on the global biogeochemical cycles is missing. This study aims at developing new tools and methods to represent soil redistribution on a global scale, and contribute to the quantiﬁcation of anthropogenic disturbances to the biogeochemical cycles. We present a new large-scale coarse resolution sediment budget model that is compatible with ESMs. This model can simulate spatial patterns and long-term trends in soil redistribution in ﬂoodplains and on hillslope, resulting from external forces such as climate and land use change. We applied this model on the Rhine catchment using climate and land cover data from the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) for the last millennium (850-2005 AD). Validation is done using observed Holocene sediment storage data and observed scaling relations between sediment storage and catchment area from the Rhine catchment. We found that the model reproduces the spatial distribution of ﬂoodplain sediment storage and the scaling relationships for ﬂoodplains and hillslopes as found in observations. The exponents of the scaling relationships can be modiﬁed by changing the spatial distribution of erosion or by changing the residence time for ﬂoodplains. However, the main feature of the scaling behavior, which is that sediment storage in ﬂoodplains increases stronger with catchment area than sediment stored on hillslopes, is not changed. Based on this we argue that the scaling behavior is an emergent feature of the model and mainly dependent on the underlying topography. Additionally, we identiﬁed that land use change explains most of the temporal variability in sediment storage for the last millennium in the Rhine catchment.

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Assessing the Impact of Floods Disaster on Soil Erosion Risk Based on the RUSLE-GloSEM Approach in Western Iran

10.21203/rs.3.rs-775510/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Morteza Akbari ◽

Ehsan Neamatollahi ◽

Hadi Memarian ◽

Mohammad Alizadeh Noughani

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Agricultural Development ◽

Erosion Risk ◽

Before And After ◽

Global Soil ◽

Major Floods ◽

The Impact

Abstract Floods cause great damage to ecosystems and are among the main agents of soil erosion. Given the importance of soils for the functioning of ecosystems and development and improvement of bio-economic conditions, the risk and rate of soil erosion was assessed using the RUSLE model in Iran’s Lorestan province before and after a period of major floods in late 2018 and early 2019. Furthermore, soil erosion was calculated for current and future conditions based on the Global Soil Erosion Modeling Database (GloSEM). The results showed that agricultural development and land use change are the main causes of land degradation in the southern and central parts of the study area. The impact of floods was also significant since our evaluations showed that soil erosion increased from 4.12 t ha-1 yr-1 before the floods to 10.93 t ha-1 yr-1 afterwards. Field surveying using 64 ground control points determined that erodibility varies from 0.17 to 0.49% in the study area. Orchards, farms, rangelands and forests with moderate or low vegetation cover were the most vulnerable land uses to soil erosion. The GloSEM modeling results revealed that climate change is the main cause of change in the rate of soil erosion. Combined land use change-climate change simulation showed that soil erosion will increase considerably in the future under SSP1-RCP2.6, SSP2-RCP4.5, and SSP5-RCP8.5 scenarios. In the study area, both natural factors, i.e. climate change and human factors such as agricultural development, population growth, and overgrazing are the main drivers of soil erosion.

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Global soil erosion: Storm on the horizon

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10255 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pasquale Borrelli ◽

David A. Robinson ◽

Panos Panagos ◽

Emanuele Lugato ◽

Jae E. Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Land Surface ◽

Water Erosion ◽

Global Dynamics ◽

Modeling Framework ◽

The Earth ◽

Global Soil

We use the latest projections of climate and land use change (year 2070) to assess potential global soil erosion rates by water erosion (interrill and rill processes) (Borrelli et al., 2020) using the RUSLE-based semiempirical modeling platform (GloSEM) (Borrelli et al., 2017). With some degree of uncertainty, GloSEM allows prediction of both state and change of soil erosion, identifying hotspots thanks to its high resolution (250 &#215; 250 m) and predicting future variation based on projections of change in land use, soil conservation practices, and climate change.Three alternative scenarios (2.6, 4.5, and 8.5) are tested using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway and Representative Concentration Pathway (SSP-RCP) (LUH2 data) and 14 General Climate Models (GCMs) (WorldClim data), for a total of 42 modelling scenarios.In the 2015 scenario, we estimate global soil erosion equal to 43 (+9.2/&#8722;7) Pg yr&#8722;1; with a study area covering &#8764;95.5% of the Earth&#8217;s land surface (in Borrelli et al. 2017 the study area was ~84.1% of the Earth&#8217;s land surface). The future scenarios suggest that socioeconomic developments impacting land use will either decrease (SSP1-RCP2.6&#8211;10%) or increase (SSP2-RCP4.5 +2%, SSP5-RCP8.5 +10%) water erosion by 2070. By contrast, climate projections, for all global dynamics scenarios, indicate a trend, moving toward a more vigorous hydrological cycle, which could increase global water erosion (+30 to +66%). Quantitatively,&#160;56.1 (+20.6+ /- 16.4) Pg yr&#8722;1, 64.8 (+28.5/-21.4) Pg yr&#8722;1, and 71.6 (+32.5/-24.7) Pg yr&#8722;1 are predicted for the SSP1-RCP2.6, SSP2-RCP4.5, and SSP5-RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively.The modeling framework presented in this study adopts standardized data in an adequate format to communicate with adjacent disciplines and moves us toward robust, reproducible, and open data science.&#160;ReferencesBorrelli, P., Robinson, D.A., Fleischer, L.R., Lugato, E., Ballabio, C., Alewell, C., Meusburger, K., Modugno, S., Sch&#252;tt, B., Ferro, V. and Bagarello, V., 2017. An assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil erosion. Nature communications, 8(1), pp.1-13.Borrelli, P., Robinson, D.A., Panagos, P., Lugato, E., Yang, J.E., Alewell, C., Wuepper, D., Montanarella, L. and Ballabio, C., 2020. Land use and climate change impacts on global soil erosion by water (2015-2070). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(36), pp.21994-22001.

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Soil erosion by snow gliding – a first quantification attempt in a subalpine area in Switzerland

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-18-3763-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 18 (9) ◽

pp. 3763-3775 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

K. Meusburger ◽

G. Leitinger ◽

L. Mabit ◽

M. H. Mueller ◽

A. Walter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Land Cover ◽

Sediment Yield ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Water Erosion ◽

Erosion Rates ◽

The Difference ◽

Snow Gliding

Abstract. Snow processes might be one important driver of soil erosion in Alpine grasslands and thus the unknown variable when erosion modelling is attempted. The aim of this study is to assess the importance of snow gliding as a soil erosion agent for four different land use/land cover types in a subalpine area in Switzerland. We used three different approaches to estimate soil erosion rates: sediment yield measurements in snow glide depositions, the fallout radionuclide 137Cs and modelling with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). RUSLE permits the evaluation of soil loss by water erosion, the 137Cs method integrates soil loss due to all erosion agents involved, and the measurement of snow glide deposition sediment yield can be directly related to snow-glide-induced erosion. Further, cumulative snow glide distance was measured for the sites in the winter of 2009/2010 and modelled for the surrounding area and long-term average winter precipitation (1959–2010) with the spatial snow glide model (SSGM). Measured snow glide distance confirmed the presence of snow gliding and ranged from 2 to 189 cm, with lower values on the north-facing slopes. We observed a reduction of snow glide distance with increasing surface roughness of the vegetation, which is an important information with respect to conservation planning and expected and ongoing land use changes in the Alps. Snow glide erosion estimated from the snow glide depositions was highly variable with values ranging from 0.03 to 22.9 t ha−1 yr−1 in the winter of 2012/2013. For sites affected by snow glide deposition, a mean erosion rate of 8.4 t ha−1 yr−1 was found. The difference in long-term erosion rates determined with RUSLE and 137Cs confirms the constant influence of snow-glide-induced erosion, since a large difference (lower proportion of water erosion compared to total net erosion) was observed for sites with high snow glide rates and vice versa. Moreover, the difference between RUSLE and 137Cs erosion rates was related to the measured snow glide distance (R2 = 0.64; p < 0.005) and to the snow deposition sediment yields (R2 = 0.39; p = 0.13). The SSGM reproduced the relative difference of the measured snow glide values under different land uses and land cover types. The resulting map highlighted the relevance of snow gliding for large parts of the investigated area. Based on these results, we conclude that snow gliding appears to be a crucial and non-negligible process impacting soil erosion patterns and magnitude in subalpine areas with similar topographic and climatic conditions.

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Global soil moisture data derived through machine learning trained with in-situ measurements

Scientific Data ◽

10.1038/s41597-021-00964-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sungmin O. ◽

Rene Orth

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Soil Moisture ◽

Large Scale ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Soil Moisture Data ◽

Wide Range ◽

Global Soil

AbstractWhile soil moisture information is essential for a wide range of hydrologic and climate applications, spatially-continuous soil moisture data is only available from satellite observations or model simulations. Here we present a global, long-term dataset of soil moisture derived through machine learning trained with in-situ measurements, SoMo.ml. We train a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model to extrapolate daily soil moisture dynamics in space and in time, based on in-situ data collected from more than 1,000 stations across the globe. SoMo.ml provides multi-layer soil moisture data (0–10 cm, 10–30 cm, and 30–50 cm) at 0.25° spatial and daily temporal resolution over the period 2000–2019. The performance of the resulting dataset is evaluated through cross validation and inter-comparison with existing soil moisture datasets. SoMo.ml performs especially well in terms of temporal dynamics, making it particularly useful for applications requiring time-varying soil moisture, such as anomaly detection and memory analyses. SoMo.ml complements the existing suite of modelled and satellite-based datasets given its distinct derivation, to support large-scale hydrological, meteorological, and ecological analyses.

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Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Erosion on the Loess Plateau: A Case Study in the Ansai Watershed

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18126266 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (12) ◽

pp. 6266

Author(s):

Hui Wei ◽

Wenwu Zhao ◽

Han Wang

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Loess Plateau ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Large Scale ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Vegetation Restoration ◽

The Loess Plateau ◽

Local Soil ◽

Erosion Environment

Large-scale vegetation restoration greatly changed the soil erosion environment in the Loess Plateau since the implementation of the “Grain for Green Project” (GGP) in 1999. Evaluating the effects of vegetation restoration on soil erosion is significant to local soil and water conservation and vegetation construction. Taking the Ansai Watershed as the case area, this study calculated the soil erosion modulus from 2000 to 2015 under the initial and current scenarios of vegetation restoration, using the Chinese Soil Loess Equation (CSLE), based on rainfall and soil data, remote sensing images and socio-economic data. The effect of vegetation restoration on soil erosion was evaluated by comparing the average annual soil erosion modulus under two scenarios among 16 years. The results showed: (1) vegetation restoration significantly changed the local land use, characterized by the conversion of farmland to grassland, arboreal land, and shrub land. From 2000 to 2015, the area of arboreal land, shrub land, and grassland increased from 19.46 km2, 19.43 km2, and 719.49 km2 to 99.26 km2, 75.97 km2, and 1084.24 km2; while the farmland area decreased from 547.90 km2 to 34.35 km2; (2) the average annual soil erosion modulus from 2000 to 2015 under the initial and current scenarios of vegetation restoration was 114.44 t/(hm²·a) and 78.42 t/(hm²·a), respectively, with an average annual reduction of 4.81 × 106 t of soil erosion amount thanks to the vegetation restoration; (3) the dominant soil erosion intensity changed from “severe and light erosion” to “moderate and light erosion”, vegetation restoration greatly improved the soil erosion environment in the study area; (4) areas with increased erosion and decreased erosion were alternately distributed, accounting for 48% and 52% of the total land area, and mainly distributed in the northwest and southeast of the watershed, respectively. Irrational land use changes in local areas (such as the conversion of farmland and grassland into construction land, etc.) and the ineffective implementation of vegetation restoration are the main reasons leading to the existence of areas with increased erosion.

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CH4and N2O fluxes in the Colorado shortgrass steppe: 2. Long-term impact of land use change

Global Biogeochemical Cycles ◽

10.1029/96gb03612 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 29-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 97

Author(s):

A. R. Mosier ◽

W. J. Parton ◽

D. W. Valentine ◽

D. S. Ojima ◽

D. S. Schimel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Shortgrass Steppe ◽

N2o Fluxes ◽

Long Term Impact

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The Effects of Long‐Term Land‐Use Change on Soil Properties in Perth, Ontario Canada

Inquiry@Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings ◽

10.24908/iqurcp.8271 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Trina Stephens

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Organic Matter ◽

North America ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Soil Properties ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Organic Matter Content ◽

Matter Content ◽

Topographic Gradients

Land‐use change can have a major impact on soil properties, leading to long‐term changes in soilnutrient cycling rates and carbon storage. While a substantial amount of research has been conducted onland‐use change in tropical regions, empirical evidence of long‐term conversion of forested land toagricultural land in North America is lacking. Pervasive deforestation for the sake of agriculturethroughout much of North America is likely to have modified soil properties, with implications for theglobal climate. Here, we examined the response of physical, chemical and biological soil properties toconversion of forest to agricultural land (100 years ago) on Roebuck Farm near Perth, Ontario, Canada.Soil samples were collected at three sites from under forest and agricultural vegetative cover on bothhigh‐ and low‐lying topographic positions (12 locations in total; soil profile sampled to a depth of 40cm).Our results revealed that bulk density, pH, and nitrate concentrations were all higher in soils collectedfrom cultivate sites. In contrast, samples from forested sites exhibited greater water‐holding capacity,porosity, organic matter content, ammonia concentrations and cation exchange capacity. Many of these characteristics are linked to greater organic matter abundance and diversity in soils under forestvegetation as compared with agricultural soils. Microbial activity and Q10 values were also higher in theforest soils. While soil properties in the forest were fairly similar across topographic gradients, low‐lyingpositions under agricultural regions had higher bulk density and organic matter content than upslopepositions, suggesting significant movement of material along topographic gradients. Differences in soilproperties are attributed largely to increased compaction and loss of organic matter inputs in theagricultural system. Our results suggest that the conversion of forested land cover to agriculture landcover reduces soil quality and carbon storage, alters long‐term site productivity, and contributes toincreased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

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Response of phosphorus fractions to land-use change followed by long-term fertilization in a sub-alpine humid soil of Qinghai–Tibet plateau

Journal of Soils and Sediments ◽

10.1007/s11368-018-2132-y ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 1109-1119 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Xiaolei Sun ◽

Meng Li ◽

Guoxi Wang ◽

Marios Drosos ◽

Fulai Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Phosphorus Fractions ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

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Warming increases carbon and nutrient fluxes from sediments in streams across land use

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-10-1193-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 1193-1207 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

S.-W. Duan ◽

S. S. Kaushal

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Organic Matter ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Sulfate Reduction ◽

Organic Matter Content ◽

Soluble Reactive Phosphorus ◽

Overlying Water ◽

Sediment Fluxes ◽

Urban Sites

Abstract. Rising water temperatures due to climate and land use change can accelerate biogeochemical fluxes from sediments to streams. We investigated impacts of increased streamwater temperatures on sediment fluxes of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrate, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and sulfate. Experiments were conducted at 8 long-term monitoring sites across land use (forest, agricultural, suburban, and urban) at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Over 20 yr of routine water temperature data showed substantial variation across seasons and years. Lab incubations of sediment and overlying water were conducted at 4 temperatures (4 °C, 15 °C, 25 °C, and 35 °C) for 48 h. Results indicated: (1) warming significantly increased sediment DOC fluxes to overlying water across land use but decreased DOC quality via increases in the humic-like to protein-like fractions, (2) warming consistently increased SRP fluxes from sediments to overlying water across land use, (3) warming increased sulfate fluxes from sediments to overlying water at rural/suburban sites but decreased sulfate fluxes at some urban sites likely due to sulfate reduction, and (4) nitrate fluxes showed an increasing trend with temperature at some forest and urban sites but with larger variability than SRP. Sediment fluxes of nitrate, SRP and sulfate were strongly related to watershed urbanization and organic matter content. Using relationships of sediment fluxes with temperature, we estimate a 5 °C warming would increase mean sediment fluxes of SRP, DOC and nitrate-N across streams by 0.27–1.37 g m−2 yr−1, 0.03–0.14 kg m−2 yr−1, and 0.001–0.06 kg m−2 yr−1. Understanding warming impacts on coupled biogeochemical cycles in streams (e.g., organic matter mineralization, P sorption, nitrification, denitrification, and sulfate reduction) is critical for forecasting shifts in carbon and nutrient loads in response to interactive impacts of climate and land use change.

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