Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin

D. Pena-Angulo (1) , E. Nadal-Romero (1) , J.C. González-Hidalgo (2) , J. Albaladejo (3) , V. Andreu (4) , H. Bahri (5) , S. Bernal (6) , M. Biddoccu (7) , R. Bienes (8) , J. Campo (9) , M.A. Campo-Bescós (10) , A. Canatario-Duarte (11) , Y. Canton (12) , J. Casali (10) , V. Castillo (13) , E. Cavallo (14) , A. Cerda (15) , P. Cid (16) , N. Cortesi (17) , G. Desir (18) , E. Diaz-Pereira (13) , T. Espigares (19) , J. Estrany (20) , J. Farguell (21) , M. Fernandez-Raga (22) , C.S. Ferreira (23) , V. Ferro (24) , F. Gallart (25) , R. Gimenez (10) , E. Gimeno (9) , J.A. Gómez (26) , A. Gomez-Gutierrez (27) , H. Gomez-Macpherson (26) , O. Gonzalez-Pelayo (28) , O. Kairis (29) , G.P. Karatzas (30) , S. Keesstra (31) , S. Klotz (32) , C. Kosmas (29) , N. Lana-Renault (33) , T. Lasanta (1) , J. Latron (34) , R. Lazaro (35) , Yves Le Bissonnais (36) , Caroline Le Bouteiller (32) , F. Licciardello (37) , J.A. López-Tarazón (38, 39) , A. Lucia (40) , V.M. Marín-Moreno (41) , C. Marin (42) , M.J. Marques (43) , J. Martinez-Fernandez (44) , M. Martinez-Mena (13) , L. Mateos (26) , N. Mathys (32) , Luis Merino-Martín (45, 46) , M. Moreno-de Las Heras (34) , N. Moustakas (29) , J.M. Nicolau (2) , V. Pampalone (47) , Damien Raclot (48) , M.L. Rodríguez-Blanco (49) , J. Rodrigo-Comino (50) , A. Romero-Diaz (51) , J.D. Ruiz-Sinoga (52) , J.L. Rubio (9) , S. Schnabel (27) , J.M. Senciales-González (52) , A. Sole-Benet (35) , E.V. Taguas (41) , M.T. Taboada-Castro (53) , M.M. Taboada-Castro (53) , F. Todisco (54) , X. Ubeda (55) , E.A. Varouchakis (30) , L. Wittenberg (56) , A. Zabaleta (57) , M. Zorn (58)

1 IPE - CSIC - Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologìa = Pyrenean Institute of Ecology [Zaragoza]
2 University of Zaragoza - Universidad de Zaragoza [Zaragoza]
3 CEBAS - CSIC - Centro de Edafologia y Biologia aplicada del Segura
4 CIDE - Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificacion
5 INRGREF - Institut National de Recherche en Génie Rural Eaux et Forêts
6 CEAB - Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes
7 CNR - National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
8 Departamento Investigación Aplicada y Extensión Agraria
9 Desertification Research Centre, Department of Environmental Quality and Soils
10 ISFOOD Institute, Department of Projects and Rural Engineering
11 School of Agriculture
12 Department of Agronomy (Soil Science Area)
13 Soil and Water Conservation Research Group
14 Institute for Agricultural and Earthmoving Machines
15 Department of Geography, Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group
16 Laboratorio Nacional de Genómica para la Biodiversidad (LANGEBIO), Maize Genetics and Genomics Lab
17 Department of Earth Sciences
18 Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra
19 Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Unidad de Ecología
20 Department of Geography, Mediterranean Ecogeomorphological and Hydrological Connectivity Research Team (MEDhyCON)
21 GRAM - Mediterranean Environmental Research Group, Department of Physical Geography and Regional Geographic Analysis
22 Department of Applied Chemistry and Physics
23 College of Agriculture, Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society (CERNAS)
24 Department of Earth and Marine Sciences [Palermo]
25 Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera
26 IAS CSIC - Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible - Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
27 INTERRA Research Institute
28 Department of Environment and Planning, Earth Surface Processes Team (ESP) Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM)
29 Department of Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering
30 School of Environmental Engineering [Chania]
31 Team Soil Water and Land Use
32 UR ETGR (ETNA) - Erosion torrentielle neige et avalanches
33 Area of Physical Geography, DCH
34 IDAEA - Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research
35 Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)
36 UMR LISAH - Laboratoire d'étude des Interactions Sol - Agrosystème - Hydrosystème
37 Physical and Regional Geography Research Group
38 Universitat de Lleida
39 University of Potsdam = Universität Potsdam
40 Faculty of Sciences, Center for Applied Geosciences
41 Universidad de Córdoba = University of Córdoba [Córdoba]
42 Universidad de Zaragossa
43 Universidade do Porto = University of Porto
44 Instituto Hispano Luso de Investigaciones Agrarias
45 UMR AMAP - Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations
46 CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
47 Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences
48 UR LCMO - Laboratoire commun de télédétection
49 University of Vigo [ Pontevedra]
50 Physical Geography
51 Departamento de Geografía
52 Universidad de Málaga [Málaga] = University of Málaga [Málaga]
53 Faculty of Sciences, Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (CICA)
54 Department of Agriculture-Food and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Research Unit
55 Departamento de Geografía, Grup de Recerca Ambiental Mediterrània
56 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
57 Science and Technology Faculty, Hydro-Environmental Processes Research Group
58 Geographical Institute

Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations

Mots clés: Weather types; Rainfall; Runoff; Erosion; Sediment yield; Seasonal analyses; Mediterranean basin

Domaines: Systématique, phylogénie et taxonomie; Biodiversité et Ecologie; Botanique; Ecosystèmes

D. Pena-Angulo, E. Nadal-Romero, J.C. González-Hidalgo, J. Albaladejo, V. Andreu, et al.. Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin. Atmosphere, 2020, 11 (6), pp.609. ⟨10.3390/atmos11060609⟩. ⟨hal-02893421⟩