Badlands and environmental change
Badlands develop in many climatic regions, on a wide range of soils and in various bedrock types. The physical triggers for development of badlands can be natural, such are tectonic activity and climate change, but more frequently they are human induced, e.g. land clearance to change use of land. Th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Copernicus Publications
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| Series: | Geographica Helvetica |
| Online Access: | http://www.geogr-helv.net/63/15/2008/gh-63-15-2008.pdf |
| Summary: | Badlands develop in many climatic regions, on a wide
range of soils and in various bedrock types. The physical
triggers for development of badlands can be natural,
such are tectonic activity and climate change, but
more frequently they are human induced, e.g. land
clearance to change use of land. The research presented
here clearly indicates that clay mineralogy and
type and amount of clay in the bedrock play a critical
role in the development of surface crust and hillslope
morphology and ultimately of badlands. Laboratory
experiments on smectite-rich samples subjected
to simulated rainfall have established a correlation
between phased development of surface crust and desiccation
cracks and duration of rainfall. A similar correlation
could not be found for smectite-poor materials.
In addition, evidence was collected on the different
responses of smectite-rich and smectite-poor lithologies
to wetting and drying periods. Thus, it appears in
particular that drying periods play an important role
in badland development on smectite-rich materials, an
aspect which is directly linked to slope orientation and
strongly sensitive to differences that occur with <i>sensu
stricto</i> seasonal climatic changes. |
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| ISSN: | 0016-7312 2194-8798 |