Modeling the Influence of Vegetation Dynamics on Landscape Erosion
Abstract
It is clear that plants play a significant role in directing the course of landscape evolution in many environments. Gully and arroyo erosion in the Colorado High Plains, for example, is controlled to a large extent by the presence of vegetative root mats, thus limiting rates of headcut advance. Vegetation may also lead to gully sedimentation. It is inevitable, therefore, for models of landscape evolution to include these effects to better understand the processes and rates governing landform morphology and development. For this purpose a simple representation of vegetation dynamics is incorporated into a numerical landscape evolution model to investigate the influence of vegetation properties on landscape morphology and development. The vegetation parameters embodied in the model include growth, erosion-dependent death, and root strength which imparts additional strength to the soil in the form of a critical shear stress. This leads to dynamic vegetation-erosion feedbacks which affect spatial and temporal denudation rates. Through numerical simulation, the equilibrium landscape's sensitivity to the three vegetation parameters (timescale for regrowth, vegetation erodibility and additional critical shear stress) is assessed, shedding light on the issues of landscape stability and variability of denudation rates under the influence of a stochastically-driven climate. Applications of this research include management and rehabilitation of soil erosion and sedimentation.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUSM...H52A01C
- Keywords:
-
- 1625 Geomorphology and weathering (1824;
- 1886);
- 1824 Geomorphology (1625)