Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T18:52:45.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Soil–landscape response to mid and late Quaternary climate fluctuations based on numerical simulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sagy Cohen ,
Garry Willgoose  and
Greg Hancock
Sagy Cohen*
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia Department of Geography, University of Alabama, Box 870322, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Garry Willgoose
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia
Greg Hancock
Affiliation:
School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geography, University of Alabama, Box 870322, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. Fax: + 1 205 348 2278. E-mail address:[email protected] (S. Cohen).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We use a numerical dynamic soil–landscape model to study one aspect of the spatio-temporal soil–landscape evolution process, the effect of climatic fluctuations on soil grading distribution in space and time in response to the interplay between physical weathering and surface erosion (soil mineralogical fluxes). We simulate a synthetic soil–landscape system over the middle and late Quaternary (last 400 ka). The results show that (1) soil–landscape response to climate change is non-linear and highly spatially variable, even at hillslope scale; and (2) soil–landscape adjustment to climate change can lag tens of thousands of years and is both spatially and temporally variable. We propose that the legacy of past climatic condition (i.e. last glacial maximum) in modern soil–landscape systems vary considerably in space. This implies that the spatiotemporal uniformity in which soil is typically described in Earth system modeling and analysis (e.g. carbon cycle) grossly underestimates their actual complexity.

Keywords

Soil Landscape EvolutionModelingPedogenesisClimateMiddle QuaternaryLate QuaternarySediment TransportPhysical Weathering
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 79 , Issue 3 , May 2013 , pp. 452 - 457
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Birkeland, P.W. Soils and Geomorphology. (1974). Oxford University Press, New York. (372 pp.)Google Scholar
Chadwick, O.A., Nettleton, W.D., and Staidl, G.J. Soil polygenesis as a function of Quaternary climate change, northern Great Basin, USA. Geoderma 68, 1–2 (1995). 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S., Willgoose, G., and Hancock, G. The mARM spatially distributed soil evolution model: autationally efficient modeling framework and analysis of hillslope soil surface organization. Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface 114, (2009). 15 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S., Willgoose, G., and Hancock, G. The mARM3D spatially distributed soil evolution model: three–dimensional model framework and analysis of hillslope and landform responses. Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface 115, (2010). 16 Google Scholar
Cornu, S., Montagne, D., and Vasconcelos, P.M. Dating constituent formation in soils to determine rates of soil processes: a review. Geoderma 153, (2009). 293–303.Google Scholar
Coventry, R.J. Abandoned shorelines and the Late Quaternary history of Lake George, New South Wales. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia 23, (1976). 249–273.Google Scholar
Cox, P.M., Betts, R.A., Jones, C.D., Spall, S.A., and Totterdell, I.J. Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model. Nature 408, (2000). 184–187.Google Scholar
Dosseto, A., Bourdon, B., and Turner, S. Uranium-series isotopes in river materials: Insights into the timescales of erosion and sediment transport. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 265, (2008). 1–17.Google Scholar
Dosseto, A., Hesse, P.P., Maher, K., Fryirs, K., and Turner, S. Climatic and vegetation control on sediment dynamics during the last glacial cycle. Geology 38, (2010). 395–398.Google Scholar
Gibbs, M.T., and Kump, L.R. Global chemical erosion during the last glacial maximum and the present: sensitivity to changes in lithology and hydrology. Paleoceanography 9, 4 (1994). 529–543.Google Scholar
Gislason, S.R., Oelkers, E.H., Eiriksdottir, E.S., Kardjilov, M.I., Gisladottir, G., Sigfusson, G., Snorrason, A., Elefsen, S., Hardardottir, J., Torssander, P., and Oskarsson, N. Direct evidence of the feedback between climate and weathering. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 277, (2009). 213–222.Google Scholar
Heimsath, A.M., Dietrich, W.E., Nishiizumi, K., and Finkel, R.C. The soil production function and landscape equilibrium. Nature 388, (1997). 358–361.Google Scholar
Heimsath, A.M., Chappel, J., Dietrich, W.E., Nishiizumi, K., and Finkel, R.C. Late Quaternary erosion in southeastern Australia: a field example using cosmogenic nuclides. Quaternary International 83–85, (2001). 169–185.Google Scholar
Holmes, K.W., Roberts, D.A., Sweeney, S., Numata, I., Matricardi, E., Biggs, T., Batista, G., and Chadwick, O.A. Soil databases and the problem of establishing regional biogeochemical trends. Global Change Biology 10, (2004). 796–814.Google Scholar
Jenny, H. Factors of Soil Formation; a System of Quantitative Pedology. (1941). McGraw–Hill, Google Scholar
Leeder, M.R., Harris, T., and Kirkby, M.J. Sediment supply and climate change: implications for basin stratigraphy. Basin Research 10, 1 (1998). 7–18.Google Scholar
Minasny, B., and McBratney, A.B. Mechanistic soil-landscape modelling as an approach to developing pedogenetic classifications. Geoderma 133, (2006). 138–149.Google Scholar
Murphy, B.W. The nature of soil. Charman, P., and Murphy, B.W. Soils: Their Properties and Management. (2007). Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.Google Scholar
Pan, Y., McGuire, A.D., Kicklighter, D.W., and Melillo, J.M. The importance of climate and soils for estimates of net primary production: a sensitivity analysis with the terrestrial ecosystem model. Global Change Biology 2, 1 (1996). 5–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petit, J.R. et al. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399, (1999). 429–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinton, J.N., Govers, G., Van Oost, K., and Bardgett, R.D. The impact of agricultural soil erosion on biogeochemical cycling. Nature Geoscience 3, (2010). 311–314.Google Scholar
Schenk, H.J., and Jackson, R.B. Rooting depth, lateral root spreads and below ground/above-ground allometries of plants in water limited ecosystems. Journal of Ecology 90, 3 (2002). 480–494.Google Scholar
Sharmeen, S., and Willgoose, G.R. The interaction between armouring and particle weathering for eroding landscapes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 31, (2006). 1195–1210.Google Scholar
Sitch, S. et al. Evaluation of ecosystem dynamics, plant geography and terrestrial carbon cycling in the LPJ dynamic global vegetation model. Global Change Biology 9, (2003). 161–185.Google Scholar
Sommer, M., Gerke, H.H., and Deumlich, D. Modelling soil landscape genesis — a “time split” approach for hummocky agricultural landscapes. Geoderma 145, (2008). 480–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temme, A.J.A.M., and Veldkamp, A. Multi-process Late Quaternary landscape evolution modelling reveals lags in climate response over small spatial scales. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 34, 4 (2009). 573–589.Google Scholar
Wells, T., Binning, P., Willgoose, G., and Hancock, G. Laboratory simulation of the salt weathering of schist: I. Weathering of schist blocks in a seasonally wet tropical environment. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 31, (2006). 339–354.Google Scholar
Wells, T., Willgoose, G.R., and Hancock, G.R. Modeling weathering pathways and processes of the fragmentation of salt weathered quartz-chlorite schist. Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface 113, (2008). 12 Google Scholar
West, A.J., Galy, A., and Bickle, M.J. Tectonic and climatic controls on silicate weathering. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 235, (2005). 211–228.Google Scholar
White, A.F., and Blum, A.E. Effects of climate on chemical weathering in watersheds. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 59, (1995). 1729–1747.Google Scholar
Willgoose, G.R., and Hancock, G.R. Applications of long-term erosion and landscape evolution models. Morgan, R.P.C., and Nearing, M.A. Handbook of Erosion Modelling. (2010). Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Willgoose, G.R., and Riley, S. The long-term stability of engineered landforms of the Ranger Uranium Mine, Northern Territory, Australia application of a catchment evolution model. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 23, (1998). 237–259.Google Scholar
Zembo, I., Trombino, L., Bersezio, R., Felletti, F., and Dapiaggi, M. Climatic and Tectonic Controls On Pedogenesis and Landscape Evolution In A Quaternary Intramontane Basin (Val D'agri Basin, Southern Apennines, Italy). Journal of Sedimentary Research 82, (2012). 283–309.Google Scholar
Zhang, P., Molnar, P., and Downs, W.R. Increased sedimentation rates and grain sizes 2–4 Myr ago due to the influence of climate change on erosion rates. Nature 410, (2001). 891–897.Google Scholar