Insights of long-term geomorphological evolution of coastal landscapes in hot-spot oceanic islands

The Canary Islands form a volcanic archipelago in which a west–east (W–E) chain of progressively older and less active islands can be observed. In the Canary Islands, unlike most hot-spot archipelagos, certain geodynamic peculiarities have promoted longer periods of island survival, exceeding 20 Myr. This factor makes these islands a suitable context for this work, which aims to analyze extensively the coastal geomorphic structure on islands with different development states. For this, three islands in different volcanic phases were selected: La Palma (1.8 Myr), Gran Canaria (14.5 Myr) and Fuerteventura (22.6 Myr). An ad hoc landform-based hierarchical taxonomy was designed to analyze the coastal geomorphic structure of the three islands. Based on a multi-sourced analysis in geographic information system (GIS) and field recognition, a comprehensive cartographic database was collected using the coastline data-storing (CDS) method as a feature abundance proxy. Three different aspects of the geomorphological structure were compared and related between the islands: (i) composition, (ii) abundance and (iii) diversity. Through their comparison, we attempt to explore geomorphological aspects of coastal evolution over geological spatiotemporal scales. Composition was explored analyzing the distribution of the feature's longshore frequencies (p). Abundance, by metrics of local abundance (N_∩) and whole density (N_U). Diversity, through four indices: normalized richness (S) and Margalef index (M) to estimate richness; Simpson index (D) and Shannon index (H’) to estimate evenness. We identified a systematic transformation in the dominant landform composition and a systematic trend in increasing geomorphological abundance and diversity from younger to older islands. The results show a long-term structural pattern defined by the increase in coastal geomorphic complexity (abundance and diversity) over geological time, as the coasts evolve from predominantly rocky-erosive to increasingly clastic-depositional environments. This long-term geomorphological pattern may be a general aspect of hot-spot island archipelagos, which can bring a new perspective to the knowledge of their coastal evolution. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

城镇化下河流水质变化及其与景观格局关系分析——以太湖流域苏州市为例

以河流近域景观格局与水环境质量间的关系为研究对象,基于2001年及2010年两期土地利用类型以及7条典型河流的溶解氧、氨氮、高锰酸盐指数、总磷、总氮5项水质指标,分析城镇化下苏州市河流水质与景观格局之间的关系及其变化规律.结果表明:(1)苏州市河流水质状况总体较差,但呈现一定的好转趋势.(2)河流水质受到城镇用地、旱地及水田的综合影响,并表现出尺度效应.其中城镇用地与旱地对河流水质恶化具有明显的作用,水田则反之.2001-2010年城镇用地及水田对水质的影响程度有所减弱,旱地则增强.(3)蔓延度指数、最大面积斑块比例对河流水质呈现负相关,斑块数量、斑块密度、香农均匀度指数、香农多样性指数则与水质呈现正相关.景观格局对于水质的影响在大范围缓冲区更为显著.研究结果可为苏州水环境管理及太湖流域城市空间开发提供一定的参考依据.     

鄱阳湖湿地苔草（Carex）景观变化及其水文响应

淡水湿地水文过程控制着湿地植被景观的形成与演变.基于Landsat TM/ETM+遥感影像数据,利用决策树分类法提取鄱阳湖湿地1992、1999、2006、2012年4期景观信息,通过景观格局指数、转移矩阵和质心迁移法对苔草景观的空间变化及其与水文过程关系进行分析.结果表明:研究期间,鄱阳湖湿地秋、冬季苔草景观分布面积受到水位和退水过程的影响,低水位年的中滩位缓慢退水与低滩位快速出露更有利于苔草景观的扩张;苔草景观的空间格局与水位关系密切,在低水位年份,低位洲滩提前出露,苔草景观分布高程较低,部分低位光滩被苔草所侵占,原苔草分布的部分洲滩转变为芦荻景观,景观的破碎化程度较重,在高水位年份,低位洲滩长期被水体淹没,苔草景观分布高程相对较高,部分芦荻分布区被苔草所侵占,而原苔草景观的部分区域转变为水体和光滩,由于该期间苔草主要集中分布在湖周和入湖河口地带的高位洲滩上,其景观破碎化程度较轻;水位年际间的升降变化会影响苔草景观质心位置,年均水位上升引起景观质心发生向湖岸方向推进,而年均水位下降则会导致苔草景观质心向湖心方向转移.     

面向景观规划设计的数字地形交互式编辑技术

 数字地形编辑是虚拟地理环境、三维景观仿真系统中一个重要的研究内容,在城市与乡村、区域道路网、风景园林的数字化规划设计实践中具有重要价值。本文以规则格网的数字地形为研究对象,面向城市和园林景观规划设计中的实际应用,提出了交互式数字地形编辑的解决方案,重点给出了分页技术的地形交互式编辑具体过程和相关的主要实现技术。数字地形编辑的实现,首先,通过鼠标交互式操作,结合射线求交算法,在地形表面选取目标编辑区域;然后,结合夹角之和检测算法,获取区域下地形数据,设定新的地形高程值,最后,将编辑操作传输至地形其他层,更新整个地形,并在地形编辑后,采用方格网计算法,统计出区域下地形填挖方量。此外,在经过平整的地形区域,植入树和三维建筑模型,构建虚拟城镇小区景观。本文初步实现了编辑操作功能的计算机软件,并展示了数字地形编辑在城镇小区景观设计中的应用结果。试验表明,基于规则格网和分页技术的数字地形编辑方法具有算法简单、计算量小、易实现等特点。此外,通过鼠标交互式的操作,能够实时、直观地显示编辑结果,达到"所见即所得"的效果。     

Transverse canyon incision and sedimentary basin excavation driven by drainage integration,Aravaipa Creek,AZ, USA

Drainage reorganization events have the potential to drive incision and erosion at high rates normally attributed to tectonic or climatic forcing. It can be difficult, however, to isolate the signal of transient events driven by drainage integration from longer term tectonic or climatic forcing. We exploit an ideal field setting in Aravaipa Creek Basin of southeastern Arizona, USA, to isolate just such a signal. Aravaipa Creek Basin underwent a period of transient incision that formed Aravaipa Canyon, evacuating a significant volume of sedimentary basin fill and Tertiary bedrock from the previously internally drained basin. We use digital terrain analyses to reconstruct the pre-incision landscapes of both Aravaipa Creek Basin and the adjacent Lower San Pedro Basin, which we use to quantify the magnitude of incision and erosion since the drainage basins integrated. Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide burial dates from ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al concentrations in latest stage basin fill in Aravaipa Creek enable us to calculate long-term incision and erosion rates from 3 Myr to the present. A ¹⁰Be concentration–depth profile from the Lower San Pedro Basin confirms that the San Pedro River incised into its high stand deposits prior to 350 000–400 000 years ago. Combining our landscape reconstructions with these age constraints, we determine that the transient rates of incision that created Aravaipa Canyon were 150 m/Myr or more, but that the background rate of erosion since integration is an order of magnitude lower, between 10 and 20 m/Myr. These results support our growing understanding that tectonic and climatic forcings need not apply for all episodes of rapid, transient incision and erosion during landscape evolution. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hillslope and point based soil erosion – an evaluation of a Landscape Evolution Model

Excessive soil erosion and deposition is recognised as a significant land degradation issue. Quantifying soil erosion and deposition is a non-trivial task. One of these methods has been the mathematical modelling of soil erosion and deposition patterns and the processes that drive them. Here we examine the capability of a landscape evolution model to predict both soil erosion rate and pattern of erosion and deposition. This numerical model (SIBERIA) uses a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to represent the landscape and calculates erosion and deposition at each grid point in the DEM. To assess field soil redistribution rates (SRR) and patterns the distribution of the environmental tracer ¹³⁷Cs has been analysed. Net hill slope SRR predicted by SIBERIA (a soil loss rate of 1.7 to 4.3 t ha^-1 yr^-1) were found to be in good agreement with ¹³⁷Cs based estimates (2.1 – 3.4 t ha^-1 yr^-1) providing confidence in the predictive ability of the model at the hillslope scale. However some differences in predicted erosion/deposition patterns were noted due to historical changes in landscape form (i.e. the addition of a contour bank) and possible causes discussed, as is the finding that soil erosion rates are an order of magnitude higher than likely soil production rates. The finding that SIBERIA can approximate independently quantified erosion and deposition patterns and rates is encouraging, providing confidence in the employment of DEM based models to quantify hillslope erosion rates and demonstrating the potential to upscale for the prediction of whole catchment erosion and deposition. The findings of this study suggest that LEMs can be a reliable alternative to complex and time consuming methods such as that using environmental tracers for the determination of erosion rates. The model and approach demonstrates a new approach to assessing soil erosion that can be employed elsewhere. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of long soil surface residence times on apparent cosmogenic nuclide denudation rates and burial ages in the Cradle of Humankind,South Africa

In situ cosmogenic nuclides are an important tool for quantifying landscape evolution and dating fossil-bearing deposits in the Cradle of Humankind (CoH), South Africa. This technique mainly employs cosmogenic 10-Beryllium (¹⁰Be) in river sediments to estimate denudation rates and the ratio of 26-Aluminium (²⁶Al) to ¹⁰Be (²⁶Al/¹⁰Be), to constrain ages of sediment burial. Here, we use ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al concentrations in bedrock and soil above the Rising Star Cave (the discovery site of Homo naledi) to constrain the denudation rate and the exposure history of soil on the surface. Apparent ¹⁰Be-derived denudation rates obtained from pebble- to cobble-sized clasts and coarse-sand in soil (on average 3.59 ± 0.27 m/Ma and 3.05 ± 0.25 m/Ma, respectively) are 2-3 times lower than the bedrock denudation rates (on average 9.46 ± 0.68 m/Ma). In addition, soil samples yield an average ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be ratio (5.12 ± 0.27) that is significantly lower than the surface production ratio of 6.75, which suggests complex exposure histories. These results are consistent with prolonged surface residence of up to 1.5 Ma in vertically mixed soils that are up to 3 m thick. We conclude that the ¹⁰Be concentrations accumulated in soils during the long near-surface residence times can potentially cause underestimation of single-nuclide (¹⁰Be) catchment-wide denudation rates in the CoH. Further, burial ages of cave sediment samples that consist of an amalgamation of sand-size quartz grains could be overestimated if a pre-burial ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be ratio calculated from the surface production is assumed. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tracing the temporal evolution of soil redistribution rates in an agricultural landscape using 239+240Pu and 10Be

Two principal groups of processes shape mass fluxes from and into a soil: vertical profile development and lateral soil redistribution. Periods having predominantly progressive soil forming processes (soil profile development) alternate with periods having predominantly regressive processes (erosion). As a result, short-term soil redistribution – years to decades – can differ substantially from long-term soil redistribution; i.e. centuries to millennia. However, the quantification of these processes is difficult and consequently their rates are poorly understood. To assess the competing roles of erosion and deposition we determined short- and long-term soil redistribution rates in a formerly glaciated area of the Uckermark, northeast Germany. We compared short-term erosion or accumulation rates using plutonium-239 and -240 (^239+240Pu) and long-term rates using both in situ and meteoric cosmogenic beryllium-10 (¹⁰Be). Three characteristic process domains have been analysed in detail: a flat landscape position having no erosion/deposition, an erosion-dominated mid-slope, and a deposition-dominated lower-slope site. We show that the short-term mass erosion and accumulation rates are about one order of magnitude higher than long-term redistribution rates. Both, in situ and meteoric ¹⁰Be provide comparable results. Depth functions, and therefore not only an average value of the topsoil, give the most meaningful rates. The long-term soil redistribution rates were in the range of −2.1 t ha^-1 yr^-1 (erosion) and +0.26 t ha^-1 yr^-1 (accumulation) whereas the short-term erosion rates indicated strong erosion of up to 25 t ha^-1 yr^-1 and accumulation of 7.6 t ha^-1 yr^-1. Our multi-isotope method identifies periods of erosion and deposition, confirming the ‘time-split approach’ of distinct different phases (progressive/regressive) in soil evolution. With such an approach, temporally-changing processes can be disentangled, which allows the identification of both the dimensions of and the increase in soil erosion due to human influence. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Climate and relief-induced controls on the temporal variability of denudation rates in a granitic upland

How soil erosion rates evolved over the last about 100 ka and how they relate to environmental and climate variability is largely unknown. This is due to a lack of suitable archives that help to trace this evolution. We determined in situ cosmogenic beryllium-10 (¹⁰Be) along vertical landforms (tors, boulders and scarps) on the Sila Massif to unravel their local exhumation patterns to develop a surface denudation model over millennia. Due to the physical resistance of tors, their rate of exhumation may be used to derive surface and, thus, soil denudation rates over time. We derived soil denudation rates that varied in the range 0–0.40 mm yr^-1. The investigated boulders, however, appear to have experienced repositioning processes about ~20–25 ka bp and were therefore a less reliable archive. The scarps of the Sila upland showed a rapid bedrock exposure within the last 8–15 ka. Overall, the denudation rates increased steadily after 75 ka bp but remained low until about 17 ka bp . The exhumation rates indicate a denudation pulse that occurred about 17–5 ka bp . Since then the rates have continuously decreased. We identify three key factors for these developments – climate, topography and vegetation. Between 75 and 17 ka bp , climate was colder and drier than today. The rapid changes towards warmer and humid conditions at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition apparently increased denudation rates. A denser vegetation cover with time counteracted denudation. Topography also determined the extent of denudation rates in the upland regime. On slopes, denudation rates were generally higher than on planar surfaces. By determining the exhumation rates of tors and scarps, soil erosion rates could be determined over long timescales and be related to topography and particularly to climate. This is key for understanding geomorphic dynamics under current environmental settings and future climate change. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Species selection and assessment of eco-engineering effects of seedlings for biogeomorphological landscape experiments

Landscape experiments of fluvial environments such as rivers and deltas are often conducted with live seedlings to investigate effects of biogeomorphological interactions on morphology and stratigraphy. However, such experiments have been limited to a single species, usually alfalfa (Medicago sativa), whereas important environments in nature have many different vegetation types and eco-engineering effects. Landscape experimentation would therefore benefit from a larger choice of tested plant species. For the purpose of experimental design our objective was to identify fast-germinating and fast-growing species and determine their sensitivity to flow conditions during and after settling, their maximum growth, hydraulic resistance and added bank strength. We tested germination time and seedling growth rate of 18 candidate species with readily available seeds that are fast growing and occur at waterlines, plus Medicago sativa as a control. We selected five species that germinate and develop within days and measured properties and eco-engineering effects depending on plant age and density, targeting typical experimental conditions of 0–0.3 m/s flow velocity and 0–30 mm water depth. Tested eco-engineering effects include bank strength and flow resistance. We found that Rumex hydrolapathum can represent riparian trees. The much smaller Veronica beccabunga and Lotus pedunculatus can represent grass and saltmarsh species as they grow in dense patches with high flow resistance but are readily erodible. Sorghum bicolor grows into tall, straight shoots, which add significantly to bank strength, but adds little flow resistance and may represent sparse hardwood trees. Medicago sativa also grows densely under water, suggesting a use for mangroves and perhaps peat. In stronger and deeper flows the application of all species changes accordingly. These species can now be used in a range of landscape experiments to investigate combined effects on living landscape patterns and possible facilitation between species. The testing and treatment methodology can be applied to new species and other laboratory conditions. © 2019 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2019 The Authors Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd © 2019 The Authors Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.