TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zimmermann, Alexander
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Elsenbeer, Helmut
T1  - Forests and erosion: Insights from a study of suspended-sediment dynamics in an overland flow-prone rainforest catchment
JF  - Journal of hydrology
N2  - Forests seem to represent low-erosion systems, according to most, but not all, studies of suspended-sediment yield. We surmised that this impression reflects an accidental bias in the selection of monitoring sites towards those with prevailing vertical hydrological flowpaths, rather than a tight causal link between vegetation cover and erosion alone. To evaluate this conjecture, we monitored, over a 2-year period, a 3.3 ha old-growth rainforest catchment prone to frequent and widespread overland flow. We sampled stream flow at two and overland flow at three sites in a nested arrangement on a within-event basis, and monitored the spatial and temporal frequency of overland flow. Suspended-sediment concentrations were modeled with Random Forest and Quantile Regression Forest to be able to estimate the annual yields for the 2 years, which amounted to 1 t ha(-1) and 2 t ha(-1) in a year with below-average and with average precipitation, respectively. These estimates place our monitoring site near the high end of reported suspended-sediment yields and lend credence to the notion that low yields reflect primarily the dominance of vertical flowpaths and not necessarily and exclusively the kind of vegetative cover. Undisturbed forest and surface erosion are certainly no contradiction in terms even in the absence of mass movements.
KW  - Rainforest
KW  - Overland flow
KW  - Erosion
KW  - Suspended-sediment yield
KW  - Quantile Regression Forest model
KW  - Panama Canal watershed
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.01.039
SN  - 0022-1694
VL  - 428
IS  - 7
SP  - 170
EP  - 181
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -