Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Coevolution Of Nonlinear Trends In Vegetation, Soils, And Topography With Elevation And Slope Aspect: A Case Study In The Sky Islands Of Southern Arizona, Jon D. Pelletier, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, David D. Breshears, Paul D. Brooks, Jon Chorover, Matej Durcik, Ciaran J. Harman, Travis E. Huxman, Kathleen A. Lohse, Rebecca Lybrand, Tom Meixner, Jennifer C. Mcintosh, Shirley A. Papuga, Craig Rasmussen, Marcel Schaap, Tyson L. Swetnam, Peter A. Troch

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Feedbacks among vegetation dynamics, pedogenesis, and topographic development affect the “critical zone”—the living filter for Earth’s hydrologic, biogeochemical, and rock/sediment cycles. Assessing the importance of such feedbacks, which may be particularly pronounced in water-limited systems, remains a fundamental interdisciplinary challenge. The sky islands of southern Arizona offer an unusually well-defined natural experiment involving such feedbacks because mean annual precipitation varies by a factor of five over distances of approximately 10 km in areas of similar rock type (granite) and tectonic history. Here we compile high-resolution, spatially distributed data for Effective Energy and Mass Transfer (EEMT: the energy available to drive …