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Symmetry in hillslope steepness and saprolite thickness between hillslopes with opposing aspects


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Created: Nov 14, 2022 at 8:19 p.m.
Last updated: May 01, 2023 at 6:19 p.m.
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Abstract

The structure of the critical zone is a product of feedbacks between hydrologic, climatic, biotic, and chemical processes. Ample research within snow-dominated systems has shown that aspect-dependent solar radiation inputs can produce striking differences in vegetation composition, topography, and soil depth between opposing hillslopes. However, more research is needed to understand the role of microclimates on critical zone development within rain-dominated systems, especially below the soil and into weathered bedrock. To address this need, we characterized the critical zone of a north-facing and south-facing slope within a first-order headwater catchment located in central coastal California. We combined terrain analysis of vegetation distribution and topography with field-based soil pit characterization, geophysical surveys and hydrologic measurements between slope-aspects. We observed thicker soil profiles, higher shallow soil moisture, and denser vegetation on north facing slopes, which matched previously documented observations in snow-dominated sites. However, average topographic gradient and saprolite thickness were uniform across our study hillslopes, which did not match common observations from the literature. These results suggest dominant processes for critical zone evolution are not necessarily transferable across climates. Thus, there is a continued need to expand critical zone research, especially in rain-dominated systems. Here, we present four non-exclusive, testable hypotheses of mechanisms that may explain these unexpected similarities in slope and saprolite thickness between hillslopes with opposing aspects. Specifically, we propose both past and present ecohydrologic functions must be taken into account to understand what shaped the present day critical zone.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
Blue Oak Ranch Reserve
North Latitude
37.3958°
East Longitude
-121.7207°
South Latitude
37.3921°
West Longitude
-121.7254°

Temporal

Start Date:
End Date:

Content

Additional Metadata

Name Value
Arbor_NSagg_GW_WY2021 N1W1: north, near-stream, bottom of well 3.36 m. N2W1: north, mid-slope, bottom of well 3.96 m. N3W2: north, near-ridge, bottom of well 3.80 m. S1W1: south, near-stream, bottom of well 3.10 m. S2W1: south, mid-slope, bottom of well 4.20 m. S3W1: south, near-ridge, bottom of well 4.60 m.
Arbor_seismic_topoelevation Elevation profile used for the seismic refraction model
Arbor_NS1050_VWCshort_WY2021 Soil volumetric water content (%) for the 10 cm and 50 cm soil profile depths on the north-facing slope (N) and south-facing slope (S) of Arbor Creek Experimental Catchment. Column headers delineate the slope-aspect, landscape position and soil depth. Numerical values 1,2,3 correspond to the near-stream, mid-slope, and near-ridge landscape positions, respectively. Water year 2021.
Arbor_Relay_PrecipDay_WY2021 Aggregated 10-min precipitation data into daily sum from Arbor Creek Experimental Catchment at the Relay Station. The Relay Station is location on the North-facing slope Ridgetop. Water year 2021.

How to Cite

Donaldson, A. M. (2023). Symmetry in hillslope steepness and saprolite thickness between hillslopes with opposing aspects, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/9a9897aa0bb14d20ab4189b98a8439f6

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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