Articles | Volume 9, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1347-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1347-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
11 Oct 2021
Research article |
| 11 Oct 2021
| 11 Oct 2021
A hybrid data–model approach to map soil thickness in mountain hillslopes
Qina Yan
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
Haruko Wainwright
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
Baptiste Dafflon
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
Sebastian Uhlemann
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
Carl I. Steefel
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
Nicola Falco
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
Jeffrey Kwang
Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst,
Amherst, MA, USA
Susan S. Hubbard
Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
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EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2341, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2341, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
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We studied how Arctic landscapes change as the ground thaws by comparing measurements taken ten years apart. We found that some areas sank and new ponds formed, with different patterns depending on the shape of the land. These changes affect how water and carbon flow and cycle through the environment. The results help understand how and where the Arctic is shifting, and highlight the need for repeated observations to track long-term changes.
Sergi Molins, Benjamin J. Andre, Jeffrey N. Johnson, Glenn E. Hammond, Benjamin N. Sulman, Konstantin Lipnikov, Marcus S. Day, James J. Beisman, Daniil Svyatsky, Hang Deng, Peter C. Lichtner, Carl I. Steefel, and J. David Moulton
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Developing scientific software and making sure it functions properly requires a significant effort. As we advance our understanding of natural systems, however, there is the need to develop yet more complex models and codes. In this work, we present a piece of software that facilitates this work, specifically with regard to reactive processes. Existing tried-and-true codes are made available via this new interface, freeing up resources to focus on the new aspects of the problems at hand.
Xiang Huang, Yu Zhang, Bo Gao, Charles J. Abolt, Ryan L. Crumley, Cansu Demir, Richard P. Fiorella, Bob Busey, Bob Bolton, Scott L. Painter, and Katrina E. Bennett
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Predicting hydrological runoff in Arctic permafrost regions is difficult due to limited observations and complex terrain. We used a detailed physics-based model to improve runoff estimates in a Earth system land model. Our method improved runoff accuracy and worked well across two different Arctic regions. This helps make climate models more reliable for understanding water flow in permafrost areas under a changing climate.
Claire L. Bachand, Chen Wang, Baptiste Dafflon, Lauren N. Thomas, Ian Shirley, Sarah Maebius, Colleen M. Iversen, and Katrina E. Bennett
The Cryosphere, 19, 393–400, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-393-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-393-2025, 2025
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Temporally continuous snow depth estimates are important for understanding changing snow patterns and impacts on frozen ground in the Arctic. In this work, we developed an approach to predict snow depth from variability in snow–ground interface temperature using small temperature sensors that are cheap and easy to deploy. This new technique enables spatially distributed and temporally continuous snowpack monitoring that has not previously been possible.
Ian Shirley, Sebastian Uhlemann, John Peterson, Katrina Bennett, Susan S. Hubbard, and Baptiste Dafflon
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-968, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-968, 2023
Preprint archived
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Snow depth has a strong impact on soil temperatures and carbon cycling in the arctic. Because of this, we want to understand why snow is deeper in some places than others. Using cameras mounted on a drone, we mapped snow depth, vegetation height, and elevation across a watershed in Alaska. In this paper, we develop novel techniques using image processing and machine learning to characterize the influence of topography and shrubs on snow depth in the watershed.
Utkarsh Mital, Dipankar Dwivedi, James B. Brown, and Carl I. Steefel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4949–4966, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4949-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4949-2022, 2022
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We present a new dataset that estimates small-scale variations in precipitation and temperature in mountainous terrain. The dataset is generated using a new machine learning framework that extracts relationships between climate and topography from existing coarse-scale datasets. The generated dataset is shown to capture small-scale variations more reliably than existing datasets and constitutes a valuable resource to model the water cycle in the mountains of Colorado, western United States.
Katrina E. Bennett, Greta Miller, Robert Busey, Min Chen, Emma R. Lathrop, Julian B. Dann, Mara Nutt, Ryan Crumley, Shannon L. Dillard, Baptiste Dafflon, Jitendra Kumar, W. Robert Bolton, Cathy J. Wilson, Colleen M. Iversen, and Stan D. Wullschleger
The Cryosphere, 16, 3269–3293, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3269-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3269-2022, 2022
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In the Arctic and sub-Arctic, climate shifts are changing ecosystems, resulting in alterations in snow, shrubs, and permafrost. Thicker snow under shrubs can lead to warmer permafrost because deeper snow will insulate the ground from the cold winter. In this paper, we use modeling to characterize snow to better understand the drivers of snow distribution. Eventually, this work will be used to improve models used to study future changes in Arctic and sub-Arctic snow patterns.
Fadji Z. Maina, Haruko M. Wainwright, Peter James Dennedy-Frank, and Erica R. Siirila-Woodburn
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3805–3823, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3805-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3805-2022, 2022
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We propose a hillslope clustering approach based on the seasonal changes in groundwater levels and test its performance by comparing it to several common clustering approaches (aridity index, topographic wetness index, elevation, land cover, and machine-learning clustering). The proposed approach is robust as it reasonably categorizes hillslopes with similar elevation, land cover, hydroclimate, land surface processes, and subsurface hydrodynamics, hence a similar hydrologic function.
Carlotta Brunetti, John Lamb, Stijn Wielandt, Sebastian Uhlemann, Ian Shirley, Patrick McClure, and Baptiste Dafflon
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 687–704, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-687-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-687-2022, 2022
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This paper proposes a method to estimate thermal diffusivity and its uncertainty over time, at numerous locations and at an unprecedented vertical spatial resolution from soil temperature time series. We validate and apply this method to synthetic and field case studies. The improved quantification of soil thermal properties is a cornerstone for advancing the indirect estimation of the fraction of soil components needed to predict subsurface storage and fluxes of water, carbon, and nutrients.
Baptiste Dafflon, Stijn Wielandt, John Lamb, Patrick McClure, Ian Shirley, Sebastian Uhlemann, Chen Wang, Sylvain Fiolleau, Carlotta Brunetti, Franklin H. Akins, John Fitzpatrick, Samuel Pullman, Robert Busey, Craig Ulrich, John Peterson, and Susan S. Hubbard
The Cryosphere, 16, 719–736, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-719-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-719-2022, 2022
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Zexuan Xu, Rebecca Serata, Haruko Wainwright, Miles Denham, Sergi Molins, Hansell Gonzalez-Raymat, Konstantin Lipnikov, J. David Moulton, and Carol Eddy-Dilek
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 755–773, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-755-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-755-2022, 2022
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Climate change could change the groundwater system and threaten water supply. To quantitatively evaluate its impact on water quality, numerical simulations with chemical and reaction processes are required. With the climate projection dataset, we used the newly developed hydrological and chemical model to investigate the movement of contaminants and assist the management of contamination sites.
Haruko M. Wainwright, Sebastian Uhlemann, Maya Franklin, Nicola Falco, Nicholas J. Bouskill, Michelle E. Newcomer, Baptiste Dafflon, Erica R. Siirila-Woodburn, Burke J. Minsley, Kenneth H. Williams, and Susan S. Hubbard
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 429–444, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-429-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-429-2022, 2022
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Jiancong Chen, Baptiste Dafflon, Anh Phuong Tran, Nicola Falco, and Susan S. Hubbard
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 6041–6066, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6041-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6041-2021, 2021
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The novel hybrid predictive modeling (HPM) approach uses a long short-term memory recurrent neural network to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) and ecosystem respiration (Reco) with only meteorological and remote-sensing inputs. We developed four use cases to demonstrate the applicability of HPM. The results indicate HPM is capable of providing ET and Reco estimations in challenging mountainous systems and enhances our understanding of watershed dynamics at sparsely monitored watersheds.
Nathan A. Wales, Jesus D. Gomez-Velez, Brent D. Newman, Cathy J. Wilson, Baptiste Dafflon, Timothy J. Kneafsey, Florian Soom, and Stan D. Wullschleger
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1109–1129, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1109-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1109-2020, 2020
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Rapid warming in the Arctic is causing increased permafrost temperatures and ground ice degradation. To study the effects of ice degradation on water distribution, tracer was applied to two end members of ice-wedge polygons – a ubiquitous landform in the Arctic. End member type was found to significantly affect water distribution as lower flux was observed with ice-wedge degradation. Results suggest ice degradation can influence partitioning of sequestered carbon as carbon dioxide or methane.
Benjamin Mary, Luca Peruzzo, Jacopo Boaga, Nicola Cenni, Myriam Schmutz, Yuxin Wu, Susan S. Hubbard, and Giorgio Cassiani
SOIL, 6, 95–114, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-95-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-95-2020, 2020
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The use of non-invasive geophysical imaging of root system processes is of increasing interest to study soil–plant interactions. The experiment focused on the behaviour of grapevine plants during a controlled infiltration experiment. The combination of the mise-à-la-masse (MALM) method, a variation of the classical electrical tomography map (ERT), for which the current is transmitted directly into the stem, holds the promise of being able to image root distribution.
Elchin E. Jafarov, Dylan R. Harp, Ethan T. Coon, Baptiste Dafflon, Anh Phuong Tran, Adam L. Atchley, Youzuo Lin, and Cathy J. Wilson
The Cryosphere, 14, 77–91, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-77-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-77-2020, 2020
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Emmanuel Léger, Baptiste Dafflon, Yves Robert, Craig Ulrich, John E. Peterson, Sébastien C. Biraud, Vladimir E. Romanovsky, and Susan S. Hubbard
The Cryosphere, 13, 2853–2867, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2853-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2853-2019, 2019
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Benjamin Mary, Luca Peruzzo, Jacopo Boaga, Myriam Schmutz, Yuxin Wu, Susan S. Hubbard, and Giorgio Cassiani
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5427–5444, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5427-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5427-2018, 2018
Gautam Bisht, William J. Riley, Haruko M. Wainwright, Baptiste Dafflon, Fengming Yuan, and Vladimir E. Romanovsky
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 61–76, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-61-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-61-2018, 2018
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The land model integrated into the Energy Exascale Earth System Model was extended to include snow redistribution (SR) and lateral subsurface hydrologic and thermal processes. Simulation results at a polygonal tundra site near Barrow, Alaska, showed that inclusion of SR resulted in a better agreement with observations. Excluding lateral subsurface processes had a small impact on mean states but caused a large overestimation of spatial variability in soil moisture and temperature.
Jeffrey S. Kwang and Gary Parker
Earth Surf. Dynam., 5, 807–820, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-807-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-807-2017, 2017
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A prevalent bedrock incision relation used in landscape evolution is the stream power incision model (SPIM), which relates incision rate to drainage area to the m power and slope to the n power. We show the most commonly used ratio, m ∕ n = 0.5, leads to scale invariance: a landscape that has a horizontal domain of 1 km × 1 km has exactly the same relief pattern as one with a 100 km × 100 km domain. This conclusion indicates that SPIM must yield unrealistic results over a wide range of conditions.
Anh Phuong Tran, Baptiste Dafflon, and Susan S. Hubbard
The Cryosphere, 11, 2089–2109, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2089-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2089-2017, 2017
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Soil organics carbon (SOC) and its influence on terrestrial ecosystem feedbacks to global warming in permafrost regions are particularly important for the prediction of future climate variation. Our study proposes a new surface–subsurface, joint deterministic–stochastic hydrological–thermal–geophysical inversion approach and documents the benefit of including multiple types of data to estimate the vertical profile of SOC content and its influence on hydrological–thermal dynamics.
Haruko M. Wainwright, Anna K. Liljedahl, Baptiste Dafflon, Craig Ulrich, John E. Peterson, Alessio Gusmeroli, and Susan S. Hubbard
The Cryosphere, 11, 857–875, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-857-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-857-2017, 2017
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Snow has a profound impact on permafrost and ecosystem functioning in the Arctic tundra. This paper aims to characterize the variability of end-of-winter snow depth and its relationship to topography in ice-wedge polygon tundra of Arctic Alaska. In addition, we develop a Bayesian geostatistical method to integrate multiscale observational platforms (a snow probe, ground penetrating radar, unmanned aerial system and airborne lidar) for estimating snow depth in high resolution over a large area.
Anh Phuong Tran, Baptiste Dafflon, Susan S. Hubbard, Michael B. Kowalsky, Philip Long, Tetsu K. Tokunaga, and Kenneth H. Williams
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 3477–3491, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3477-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3477-2016, 2016
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Quantifying water and heat fluxes in the shallow subsurface is particularly important due to their strong control on recharge, evaporation and biogeochemical processes. This study developed and tested a new inversion scheme to estimate subsurface hydro-thermal parameters by joint using different hydrological, thermal and geophysical data. It is especially useful for the increasing number of studies that are taking advantage of autonomously collected measurements to explore ecosystem dynamics.
Related subject area
Cross-cutting themes: Critical zone processes
Decadal in situ hydrological observations and empirical modeling of pressure head in a high-alpine, fractured calcareous rock slope
Probing the exchange of CO2 and O2 in the shallow critical zone during weathering of marl and black shale
Sediment export in marly badland catchments modulated by frost-cracking intensity, Draix–Bléone Critical Zone Observatory, SE France
Sediment size on talus slopes correlates with fracture spacing on bedrock cliffs: implications for predicting initial sediment size distributions on hillslopes
Designing a network of critical zone observatories to explore the living skin of the terrestrial Earth
Quantifying the controls on potential soil production rates: a case study of the San Gabriel Mountains, California
Soilscape evolution of aeolian-dominated hillslopes during the Holocene: investigation of sediment transport mechanisms and climatic–anthropogenic drivers
Exploring the sensitivity on a soil area-slope-grading relationship to changes in process parameters using a pedogenesis model
Designing a suite of measurements to understand the critical zone
Riccardo Scandroglio, Samuel Weber, Till Rehm, and Michael Krautblatter
Earth Surf. Dynam., 13, 295–314, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-295-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-295-2025, 2025
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Despite the critical role of water in alpine regions, its presence in bedrock is frequently neglected. This research examines the dynamics of water in fractures using 1 decade of measurements from a tunnel 50 m underground. We provide new insights into alpine groundwater dynamics, revealing that up to 800 L d-1 can flow in one fracture during extreme events. These quantities can saturate the fractures, enhance hydraulic conductivity, and generate pressures that destabilize slopes.
Tobias Roylands, Robert G. Hilton, Erin L. McClymont, Mark H. Garnett, Guillaume Soulet, Sébastien Klotz, Mathis Degler, Felipe Napoleoni, and Caroline Le Bouteiller
Earth Surf. Dynam., 12, 271–299, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-271-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-271-2024, 2024
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Chemical weathering of sedimentary rocks can release carbon dioxide and consume oxygen. We present a new field-based method to measure the exchange of these gases in real time, which allows us to directly compare the amount of reactants and products. By studying two sites with different rock types, we show that the chemical composition is an important factor in driving the weathering reactions. Locally, the carbon dioxide release changes alongside temperature and precipitation.
Coline Ariagno, Caroline Le Bouteiller, Peter van der Beek, and Sébastien Klotz
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 81–96, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-81-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-81-2022, 2022
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The
critical zonenear the surface of the Earth is where geologic substrate, erosion, climate, and life meet and interact. This study focuses on mechanisms of physical weathering that produce loose sediment and make it available for transport. We show that the sediment export from a monitored catchment in the French Alps is modulated by frost-weathering processes and is therefore sensitive to complex modifications in a warming climate.
Joseph P. Verdian, Leonard S. Sklar, Clifford S. Riebe, and Jeffrey R. Moore
Earth Surf. Dynam., 9, 1073–1090, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1073-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1073-2021, 2021
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River behavior depends on the size of rocks they carry. Rocks are born on hillslopes where erosion removes fragments from solid bedrock. To understand what controls the size of rock fragments, we measured the spacing between cracks exposed in 15 bare-rock cliffs and the size of rocks on the ground below. We found that, for each site, the average rock size could be predicted from the average distance between cracks, which varied with rock type. This shows how rock type can influence rivers.
Susan L. Brantley, William H. McDowell, William E. Dietrich, Timothy S. White, Praveen Kumar, Suzanne P. Anderson, Jon Chorover, Kathleen Ann Lohse, Roger C. Bales, Daniel D. Richter, Gordon Grant, and Jérôme Gaillardet
Earth Surf. Dynam., 5, 841–860, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-841-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-841-2017, 2017
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The layer known as the critical zone extends from the tree tops to the groundwater. This zone varies globally as a function of land use, climate, and geology. Energy and materials input from the land surface downward impact the subsurface landscape of water, gas, weathered material, and biota – at the same time that differences at depth also impact the superficial landscape. Scientists are designing observatories to understand the critical zone and how it will evolve in the future.
Jon D. Pelletier
Earth Surf. Dynam., 5, 479–492, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-479-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-479-2017, 2017
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The rate at which bedrock can be converted into transportable material is a fundamental control on the topographic evolution of mountain ranges. Using the San Gabriel Mountains, California, as an example, in this paper I demonstrate that this rate depends on topographic slope in mountain ranges with large compressive stresses via the influence of topographically induced stresses on fractures. Bedrock and climate both control this rate, but topography influences bedrock in an interesting new way.
Sagy Cohen, Tal Svoray, Shai Sela, Greg Hancock, and Garry Willgoose
Earth Surf. Dynam., 5, 101–112, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-101-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-101-2017, 2017
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Soil-depleted hillslopes across the Mediterranean and Europe are thought to be the result of human activity in the last 2–5 millennia. We study a site on the margin between Mediterranean and desert climates which was subject to intense wind-borne soil accumulation for tens of thousands of years but is now mostly bare. Using a numerical simulator we investigated the processes that may have led to this landscape and identified the specific signatures of different processes and drivers.
W. D. Dimuth P. Welivitiya, Garry R. Willgoose, Greg R. Hancock, and Sagy Cohen
Earth Surf. Dynam., 4, 607–625, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-607-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-607-2016, 2016
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This paper generalises the physical dependence of the relationship between contributing area, local slope, and the surface soil grading first described by Cohen et al. (2009, 2010) using a soil evolution model called SSSPAM. We show the influence of weathering on the equilibrium soil profile and its spatial distribution. We conclude that the soil grading relationship is robust and will occur for most equilibrium soils. This spatial organisation is also true below the surface.
Susan L. Brantley, Roman A. DiBiase, Tess A. Russo, Yuning Shi, Henry Lin, Kenneth J. Davis, Margot Kaye, Lillian Hill, Jason Kaye, David M. Eissenstat, Beth Hoagland, Ashlee L. Dere, Andrew L. Neal, Kristen M. Brubaker, and Dan K. Arthur
Earth Surf. Dynam., 4, 211–235, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-211-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-211-2016, 2016
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In order to better understand and forecast the evolution of the environment from the top of the vegetation canopy down to bedrock, numerous types of intensive measurements have been made over several years in a small watershed. The ability to expand such a study to larger areas and different environments requiring fewer measurements is essential. This study presents one possible approach to such an expansion, to collect necessary and sufficient measurements in order to forecast this evolution.
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Short summary
We develop a hybrid model to estimate the spatial distribution of the thickness of the soil layer, which also provides estimations of soil transport and soil production rates. We apply this model to two examples of hillslopes in the East River watershed in Colorado and validate the model. The results show that the north-facing (NF) hillslope has a deeper soil layer than the south-facing (SF) hillslope and that the hybrid model provides better accuracy than a machine-learning model.
We develop a hybrid model to estimate the spatial distribution of the thickness of the soil...
