Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes

Autor: Minhui Li, Hansjörg Seybold, Baosheng Wu, Yi Chen, Xudong Fu, James W. Kirchner
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol 51, Iss 8, Pp n/a-n/a (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1944-8007
0094-8276
DOI: 10.1029/2023GL105804
Popis: Abstract Drainage basins are fundamental units of Earth's surface, describing how flows accumulate across landscapes. They are direct expressions of how tectonics and climatic forces alter Earth's surface morphology. Here, we measure the width‐to‐length ratios (WLRs) of 386,931 drainage basins (average area ∼157 km2), covering all continents except Antarctica and Greenland. Global variations in WLRs are correlated with climatic aridity, whole‐basin slope, and local topographic roughness. Basins in arid landscapes tend to be narrower, potentially reflecting a higher prevalence of surface runoff and therefore a stronger slope‐parallel component of the transporting flow. Local topographic roughness is associated with wider basins, potentially reflecting greater dispersion of flow directions. Conversely, whole‐basin topographic gradients, potentially reflecting gradients in uplift, are associated with narrower basins. However, steeper basins are also often rougher, so revealing the effects of whole‐basin slope requires correcting for the confounding effects of roughness variations.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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