River networks dissipate the hillslope runoff processes

Along with Professor Ricardo Mantilla from the University of Manitoba and Morgan Fonley from Alma College, we investigated the connection between the hillslope-scale runoff fluctuations and the simulated hydrographs at various scales. According to our results, hillslope signals with different shapes become similar as we travel downstream (see Figure). The results from this work explain the difficulty in establishing a causal link between small-scale runoff generation mechanisms and streamflow records observed at the channels.

We present the results from this work in the manuscript titled: “Technical Note: Testing the Connection Between Hillslope Scale Runoff Fluctuations and Streamflow Hydrographs at the Outlet of Large River Basins,” which can be read here.