Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ...
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 (ave...
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ETH Zurich
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ftdatacite:10.3929/ethz-b-000670801 2024-09-15T17:47:49+00:00 Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... Li, Minhui Seybold, Hansjörg Wu, Baosheng Chen, Yi Fu, Xudong Kirchner, James W. 2024 application/pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000670801 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/670801 en eng ETH Zurich article-journal Journal Article Text ScholarlyArticle 2024 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000670801 2024-07-03T11:14:10Z 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 ... : Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (8) ... Text Antarc* Antarctica Greenland DataCite |
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ftdatacite |
language |
English |
description |
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 ... : Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (8) ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Li, Minhui Seybold, Hansjörg Wu, Baosheng Chen, Yi Fu, Xudong Kirchner, James W. |
spellingShingle |
Li, Minhui Seybold, Hansjörg Wu, Baosheng Chen, Yi Fu, Xudong Kirchner, James W. Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... |
author_facet |
Li, Minhui Seybold, Hansjörg Wu, Baosheng Chen, Yi Fu, Xudong Kirchner, James W. |
author_sort |
Li, Minhui |
title |
Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... |
title_short |
Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... |
title_full |
Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... |
title_fullStr |
Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes ... |
title_sort |
global analysis of topographic and climatic controls on drainage basin shapes ... |
publisher |
ETH Zurich |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000670801 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/670801 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Greenland |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Greenland |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000670801 |
_version_ |
1810497445425053696 |