Linking Geomorphic Process Dominance and the Persistence of Local Elevation

Abstract

AbstractThe response of eroding topography to changes in base level is driven by patchy and intermittent mass flux, both on hillslopes and in channels. However, most models of soil‐mantled landscape evolution use continuously differentiable equations that average over these patchy transport processes. Because of the limited time and space resolution of field observations, the relationship between zeroth‐order landscape evolution (i.e., over long space and time scales) and first‐order fluctuations due to patchy, intermittent transport (e.g., tree throw and landsliding) remains unclear. Here, we use five physical experiments of an eroding experimental landscape to examine how the signature of first‐order transport, as described by autocorrelation functions of local elevation time series, varies as a function of the vigor of hillslope transport relative to channel incision. Our results show that experiments with higher hillslope transport efficacy have higher autocorrelation coefficients, suggesting that differences in zeroth‐order transport coefficients may be driven by differences in patchy, first‐order transport processes. These higher autocorrelation coefficients also imply that in landscapes where hillslope transport dominates, landscape dynamism is reduced and patterns of elevation change are more persistent over time. These findings suggest that the balance between channelized and hillslope transport processes is fundamental to landscape response to perturbation and may control landscape susceptibility to unsteady processes like large‐scale reorganization.