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Spatial Variability in Rainfall Erosivity versus Rainfall Depth

Implications for Sediment Yield

^a Balance Hydrologics, Inc., 841 Folger Ave., Berkeley, CA 94710
^b Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop J495, Los Alamos, NM 87545, currently, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, School of Natural Resources, and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721-0043
^c Department of Earth Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523

Correspondence: ^* Corresponding author (bhastings{at}balancehydro.com)

Received for publication 7 February 2004. Rainfall depth within small semiarid watersheds can have high spatial variability, but spatial variability in rainfall erosivity, a more direct determinant of sediment yield, has not been quantified. Using 12 tipping-bucket rain gauges within a 40-ha piñon [Pinus edulis Engelm)–juniper (Juniperus monosperma (Engelm.) Sarg.] woodland in New Mexico, we measured rainfall erosivity (EI₃₀) and associated precipitation and erosion metrics for 14 convective thunderstorms. Spatial variability in EI₃₀ had a median CV across storms of 22% (range: 9–73%), exceeded the median CV for rainfall depth (15%, range: 5–26%), and varied by up to a factor of five (5–25 N h^–1) within 300 m. EI₃₀ was better correlated with sediment yield measured in <0.1-ha microwatersheds (r² = 0.67; p < 0.001) than rainfall depth (r² = 0.43; p < 0.001). Our results highlight the potential importance for erosion related assessments of spatial variability in erosivity, which can be as great or greater than spatial variability in rainfall depth. The spatial variability in rainfall erosivity that we document here is relevant to erosion and contaminant transport issues near Los Alamos National Laboratory and may be applicable to other extensive semiarid areas.

This article has been cited by other articles:

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