Watershed zonation through hillslope clustering for tractably quantifying above- and below-ground watershed heterogeneity and functions

Wainwright, Haruko M.; Uhlemann, Sebastian; Franklin, Maya; Falco, Nicola; Bouskill, Nicholas J.; Newcomer, Michelle E.; Dafflon, Baptiste; Siirila-Woodburn, Erica R.; Minsley, Burke J.; Williams, Kenneth H.; Hubbard, Susan S.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-429-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-429-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-429-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 2

Research article

|

31 Jan 2022

Research article |

| 31 Jan 2022

Watershed zonation through hillslope clustering for tractably quantifying above- and below-ground watershed heterogeneity and functions

Haruko M. Wainwright, Sebastian Uhlemann, Maya Franklin, Nicola Falco, Nicholas J. Bouskill, Michelle E. Newcomer, Baptiste Dafflon, Erica R. Siirila-Woodburn, Burke J. Minsley, Kenneth H. Williams, and Susan S. Hubbard

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-429-2022-supplement

Data sets

Data used in Wainwright, H.M. et al. 2021, “Watershed zonation through hillslope clustering for tractably quantifying above- and belowground watershed heterogeneity and functions” H. Wainwright, S. Uhlemann, M. Franklin, N. Falco, N. Bouskill, M. Newcomer, B. Dafflon, E. Woodburn, B. Minsley, K. Williams, and S. Hubbard https://doi.org/10.15485/1841262

Model code and software

mclust 5: clustering, classification and density estimation using Gaussian finite mixture models (https://mclust-org.github.io/mclust/) L. Scrucca, M. Fop, T. B. Murphy, and A. E. Raftery https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2016-021

Short summary

This paper has developed a tractable approach for characterizing watershed heterogeneity and its relationship with key functions such as ecosystem sensitivity to droughts and nitrogen export. We have applied clustering methods to classify hillslopes into watershed zones that have distinct distributions of bedrock-to-canopy properties as well as key functions. This is a powerful approach for guiding watershed experiments and sampling as well as informing hydrological and biogeochemical models.