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Soil-Landscape Evolution Modeling

Most processes in the terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric systems are affected by soil-landscape properties (e.g. carbon cycle, biogeochemical-vegetation interactions, vegetation root zone extent and sedimentary basin dynamics). Numerical models are a useful research tool as they allow segregation and simplification of specific processes and drivers and the simulation of spatial and/or temporal scenarios. This is important as quantification of rates and mechanisms in soil-landscape evolution can be extremely challenging as the effect of past conditions and drivers is often uncertain and quantifying past trends using modern observations can rarely provide a spatially and temporally continuous description of soil-landscape evolution trends.

mARM5D is a three‐dimensional model, simulating soil-landscape evolution as a function of erosion and pedogenic processes. The model simulates the discretized soil profile for points on a spatial grid.

Papers

  • Cohen, S., G. Willgoose, T. Svoray, G. Hancock, and S. Sela (2015), The effects of sediment‐transport, weathering and aeolian mechanisms on soil evolution,  Journal of Geophysical Research, 120260274. DOI: 10.1002/2014JF003186 [pdf]
  • Cohen, S., G. Willgoose, and G. Hancock (2013), Soil–landscape response to mid and late Quaternary climate fluctuations based on numerical simulations, Quaternary Research, 79 (3): 452–457. doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2013.01.001 [pdf]
  • Cohen, S., G. Willgoose, and G. Hancock (2010), The mARM3D spatially distributed soil evolution model: three-dimensional model framework, and analysis of hillslope and landform responses, Journal of Geophysical Research115, F04013, doi:10.1029/2009JF001536. [pdf]
  • Cohen, S., G. Willgoose, and G. Hancock (2009), The mARM spatially distributed soil evolution model: A computationally efficient modeling framework and analysis of hillslope soil surface organization, Journal of Geophysical Research114, F03001, doi:10.1029/2008JF001214. [pdf]
Erosion and weathering graphic