Premium
Transition between stable states in the dynamics of soil development
Author(s) -
D'Odorico Paolo,
Porporato Amilcare,
Ridolfi Luca
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl012290
Subject(s) - bedrock , soil production function , landslide , bistability , erosion , weathering , geology , statistical physics , soil science , environmental science , soil water , pedogenesis , physics , geomorphology , quantum mechanics
The dynamics of soil development and erosion is studied through a stochastic soil mass balance in which the soil production by bedrock weathering is expressed as a state‐dependent deterministic function, while the erosion by landslides is modeled as a marked Poisson process. For a range of values of the parameters the dynamics is bistable and the noise drives the transitions from a state to another through a potential barrier. The rates of such a transition are analytically estimated and their dependence on the system parameters is briefly discussed.