Reconstructing long-term gully dynamics in Mediterranean agricultural areas

Hayas, Antonio; Vanwalleghem, Tom; Laguna, Ana; Peña, Adolfo; Giráldez, Juan V.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-235-2017

Articles | Volume 21, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-235-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-235-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 1

Research article

|

11 Jan 2017

Research article |

| 11 Jan 2017

Reconstructing long-term gully dynamics in Mediterranean agricultural areas

Antonio Hayas, Tom Vanwalleghem, Ana Laguna, Adolfo Peña, and Juan V. Giráldez

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Jan 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 15 Jun 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Moderate Revisions, Not Major', Anonymous Referee #1, 06 Jul 2016
- AC1: 'Response to Reviewer #1', Antonio Hayas, 26 Jul 2016
RC2: 'Comments/Suggestions', Anonymous Referee #2, 07 Jul 2016
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer #2', Antonio Hayas, 26 Jul 2016
RC3: 'Hayas et al ms', Anonymous Referee #3, 22 Jul 2016
- AC3: 'Response to Reviewer #3', Antonio Hayas, 26 Jul 2016
RC4: 'Referee Comments', Anonymous Referee #4, 01 Aug 2016
- AC4: 'Response to Reviewer #4', Antonio Hayas, 09 Aug 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (04 Sep 2016) by Nunzio Romano

AR by Antonio Hayas on behalf of the Authors (11 Sep 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (24 Sep 2016) by Nunzio Romano

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (11 Oct 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The authors are commended on their moderate to major revisions that greatly improved the paper. The paper should be accepted, after addressing just a few minor comments.

Minor Comments
Page 1 Line 11. Perhaps rework to say that land use has a secondary effect rather than indirect. Land use such as gully reshaping can have direct effects on gullies, but just might not be the primary driver of gully extension and growth in this case. Rainfall is the driver, land cover and grass is the resistor to erosion.

Page 8 Line 16 It is still interesting that 2005-2007 had the greatest 4% rate of annual land use change from herbaceous crop to olive orchards, and that the expected lag effect of major erosion did not occur in the 2007 major daily rain event, but rather during the numerous average daily rainfall events between 2009-2013. Still could be a lag effect of land use conversion, but driven by runoff process during above average wet years. These data indicate that large magnitude daily events are not the key drivers, but rather frequent moderate magnitude events. This goes to the heart of the cumulative duration concept and Wolman and Miller (1960) magnitude duration and frequency concepts in geomorphology.

Wolman, M.G., Miller, J.P., 1960. Magnitude and frequency of forces in geomorphic processes. Journal of Geology, 68, 54-74.

Page 9 Line 17 Again you suggest that land use did not seem to control……change to ……..did not seem to be the dominant factor.

Page 12 Line 20-24 Note that your discussion of Hortonian vs. Dunnean flow is separate from the ‘complex response’ of Patton and Schumm. The latter is a geomorphic channel evolution model that describes incision of a cross-section, then aggradation from upstream erosion as the headcut progresses, and then re-incision into secondary fill material. This is all a result of how a given gully changes in response to altered boundary conditions and variable precipitation and runoff events, but not Hortonian vs. Dunnean flow. Please change and separate the concepts you are referring to. The following sentences seem to be ok.

Global Edits: there are still a few minor grammar issues, such as too frequent commas, and too long of sentences. Try breaking up long sentences into two sentences for ease of reading.

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RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (26 Oct 2016)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (further review by Editor) (26 Oct 2016) by Nunzio Romano

AR by Antonio Hayas on behalf of the Authors (07 Nov 2016) Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (20 Nov 2016) by Nunzio Romano

AR by Antonio Hayas on behalf of the Authors (27 Nov 2016)

Short summary

Gully erosion is one of the most important erosion processes. In this study, we provide new data on gully dynamics over long timescales with an unprecedented temporal resolution. We apply a new Monte Carlo based method for calculating gully volumes based on orthophotos and, especially, for constraining uncertainties of these estimations. Our results show that gully erosion rates are highly variable from year to year and significantly higher than other erosion processes.