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The soil production function and landscape equilibrium

Author

Listed:
  • Arjun M. Heimsath

    (University of California)

  • William E. Dietrich

    (University of California)

  • Kunihiko Nishiizumi

    (†Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California)

  • Robert C. Finkel

    (‡Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

Abstract

Hilly and mountainous landscapes are partially to completely covered with soil under a wide range of erosion and uplift rates, bedrock type and climate. For soil to persist it must be replenished at a rate equal to or greater than that of erosion. Although it has been assumed for over 100 years that bedrock disintegration into erodable soil declines with increasing soil mantle thickness1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, no field data have shown this relationship. Here we apply two independent field methods for determining soil production rates to hillslopes in northern California. First, we show that hillslope curvature (a surrogate for soil production7) varies inversely with soil depth. Second, we calculate an exponential decline of soil production rates with increasing soil depth from measurements of the in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al concentrations in bedrock sampled under soils of different depths. Results from both methods agree well and yield the first empirical soil production function. We also illustrate how our methods can determine whether a landscape is in morphological equilibrium or not.

Suggested Citation

  • Arjun M. Heimsath & William E. Dietrich & Kunihiko Nishiizumi & Robert C. Finkel, 1997. "The soil production function and landscape equilibrium," Nature, Nature, vol. 388(6640), pages 358-361, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:388:y:1997:i:6640:d:10.1038_41056
    DOI: 10.1038/41056
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    Cited by:

    1. Dlamini, P. & Orchard, C. & Jewitt, G. & Lorentz, S. & Titshall, L. & Chaplot, V., 2011. "Controlling factors of sheet erosion under degraded grasslands in the sloping lands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(11), pages 1711-1718, September.
    2. Ara Jeong & Ronald I. Dorn & Yeong-Bae Seong & Byung-Yong Yu, 2021. "Acceleration of Soil Erosion by Different Land Uses in Arid Lands above 10 Be Natural Background Rates: Case Study in the Sonoran Desert, USA," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-28, August.
    3. Nele Lehmann & Tobias Stacke & Sebastian Lehmann & Hugues Lantuit & John Gosse & Chantal Mears & Jens Hartmann & Helmuth Thomas, 2023. "Alkalinity responses to climate warming destabilise the Earth’s thermostat," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Saskia Keesstra & Gerben Mol & Jan De Leeuw & Joop Okx & Co Molenaar & Margot De Cleen & Saskia Visser, 2018. "Soil-Related Sustainable Development Goals: Four Concepts to Make Land Degradation Neutrality and Restoration Work," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-20, November.

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