A new large-scale suspended sediment model  and its application over the United States

Li, Hong-Yi; Tan, Zeli; Ma, Hongbo; Zhu, Zhenduo; Abeshu, Guta Wakbulcho; Zhu, Senlin; Cohen, Sagy; Zhou, Tian; Xu, Donghui; Leung, L. Ruby

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-665-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-665-2022

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-665-2022

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

Articles | Volume 26, issue 3

Research article

|

10 Feb 2022

Research article |

| 10 Feb 2022

A new large-scale suspended sediment model and its application over the United States

Hong-Yi Li, Zeli Tan, Hongbo Ma, Zhenduo Zhu, Guta Wakbulcho Abeshu, Senlin Zhu, Sagy Cohen, Tian Zhou, Donghui Xu, and L. Ruby Leung

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Final revised paper (published on 10 Feb 2022)
Preprint (discussion started on 30 Sep 2021)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on hess-2021-491', Zhengdong Cao, 04 Nov 2021

This study developed a new process-based suspended sediment module based on MOSART within E3SM. The new model, MOSART-sediment, consists of an existing soil erosion module, a new riverine sediment module and a new resevoir module with both reservoir trapping and regulation mechanisms incoroporated. It is then applied to CONUS for long-term average suspended seidment discharge simulations. The historical data are reasonably captured, and the reservoir effects are well analyzed. Overall, the manuscript is of a high quality considering that 1) two study objectives are clearly stated and well acheieved; 2) model implementations and results are clearly described; 3) model uncertainty and reservoir effects are also discussed.

My main comment is on section 2.2.1, where I think the authors should describe the ELM-erosion model even more briefly and focus more on how it is applied/manipulated in this study. For example, how did this study 'refine the MMF'? Another obvious place needs improvement is the description of the paper outline at around Line 145; I have highlighted it in the manuscript. I also provided some comments/edit suggestions in the attached pdf file. I believe the manuscript is ready to be published once these are addressed. I am happy to take another round of review but I don't think it is necessary.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-491-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Hongyi Li, 21 Dec 2021
  
  We thank Reviewer #1 for the constructive comments. We have revised Section 2.2.1 per the Reviewer’s suggestion, now in Line 183-216. The paper outline description was also revised in Line 116-119. We have also incorporated the other minor comments/edits from the pdf file that Reviewer #1 provided. Please see attached our revised manuscript with changes tracked.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-491-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on hess-2021-491', David Waterman, 08 Nov 2021

My comments are attached in the pdf.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-491-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Hongyi Li, 21 Dec 2021
  
  We thank Reviewer #2 for the constructive comments. The attached document includes 1) our point-to-point responses and 2) our revised manuscript with changes tracked.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-491-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Publish as is (04 Jan 2022) by Fuqiang Tian

AR by Hongyi Li on behalf of the Authors (10 Jan 2022) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

We introduce a new multi-process river sediment module for Earth system models. Application and validation over the contiguous US indicate a satisfactory model performance over large river systems, including those heavily regulated by reservoirs. This new sediment module enables future modeling of the transportation and transformation of carbon and nutrients carried by the fine sediment along the river–ocean continuum to close the global carbon and nutrient cycles.