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The Landscape Cycle under Semi-Arid Conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

C. A. Cotton
C. A. Cotton
Affiliation:
Wellington, New Zealand.
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Extract

It is difficult to draw the line between aridity and semi-aridity, just as it-is difficult to differentiate between humid and semi-arid climates as they affect the development of landscape forms. No hard and fast divisions based on rainfall figures can be adopted. Evaporation, in part controlled by temperature, and the seasonal distribution of rainfall are also important factors. “The rainfall regime is divisible”, according to. Bryan, “into the episodic and the periodic. In the episodic type rain falls in storms that are highly variable in intensity and are scattered through the year; in the periodic type precipitation is concentrated in one season, either summer or winter. In areas having the periodic type vegetation is adjusted to the wet season, and a relatively greater vegetative cover is possible with low rainfall. The Mediterranean region and California have the periodic type of rainfall, with winter maximum and mild temperatures. Thus in many sub-areas the land forms under mean annual rainfalls of 15 to 20 inches are very similar to those of humid regions, although the soils … are quite like those of other arid regions. The episodic rainfall, because of its variability in time throughout the year, is less effective in promoting growth, and the vegetative cover may be so scant with rainfalls of 5 to 7 inches that geomorphologically the region is essentially a desert. Episodic rainfall as high as 15 to 20 inches may produce steppe conditions. … In general the warmer areas have a relatively scantier vegetation with the same rainfall regime. Including this relation all varieties of hot and cold deserts or semi-arid climates are possible (2).”

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 9 , September 1939 , pp. 402 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1939

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References

REFERENCES

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