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| Titel |
Soil erosion by snow gliding – a first quantification attempt in a subalpine area in Switzerland |
| VerfasserIn |
K. Meusburger, G. Leitinger, L. Mabit, M. H. Mueller, A. Walter, C. Alewell |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 18, no. 9 ; Nr. 18, no. 9 (2014-09-26), S.3763-3775 |
| Datensatznummer |
250120478
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-18-3763-2014.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Snow processes might be one important driver of soil erosion in Alpine
grasslands and thus the unknown variable when erosion modelling is attempted.
The aim of this study is to assess the importance of snow gliding as a soil
erosion agent for four different land use/land cover types in a subalpine
area in Switzerland. We used three different approaches to estimate soil
erosion rates: sediment yield measurements in snow glide depositions, the
fallout radionuclide 137Cs and modelling with the Revised Universal Soil
Loss Equation (RUSLE). RUSLE permits the evaluation of soil loss by water
erosion, the 137Cs method integrates soil loss due to all erosion agents
involved, and the measurement of snow glide deposition sediment yield can be
directly related to snow-glide-induced erosion. Further, cumulative snow
glide distance was measured for the sites in the winter of 2009/2010 and
modelled for the surrounding area and long-term average winter precipitation
(1959–2010) with the spatial snow glide model (SSGM). Measured snow glide
distance confirmed the presence of snow gliding and ranged from 2 to 189 cm,
with lower values on the north-facing slopes. We observed a reduction of snow
glide distance with increasing surface roughness of the vegetation, which is
an important information with respect to conservation planning and expected
and ongoing land use changes in the Alps. Snow glide erosion estimated from
the snow glide depositions was highly variable with values ranging from 0.03
to 22.9 t ha−1 yr−1 in the winter of 2012/2013. For sites
affected by snow glide deposition, a mean erosion rate of
8.4 t ha−1 yr−1 was found. The difference in long-term erosion
rates determined with RUSLE and 137Cs confirms the constant influence of
snow-glide-induced erosion, since a large difference (lower proportion of
water erosion compared to total net erosion) was observed for sites with high
snow glide rates and vice versa. Moreover, the difference between RUSLE and
137Cs erosion rates was related to the measured snow glide distance
(R2 = 0.64; p < 0.005) and to the snow deposition sediment
yields (R2 = 0.39; p = 0.13). The SSGM reproduced the relative
difference of the measured snow glide values under different land uses and
land cover types. The resulting map highlighted the relevance of snow gliding
for large parts of the investigated area. Based on these results, we conclude
that snow gliding appears to be a crucial and non-negligible process
impacting soil erosion patterns and magnitude in subalpine areas with similar
topographic and climatic conditions. |
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