Relationship ofrunoff,erosionandsedimentyield to weathertypesinthe Iberian Peninsula

abstract Article history:Received 6 May 2014Received in revised form 7 September 2014Accepted 16 September 2014Available online 28 September 2014Keywords:Weather typesPrecipitationErosionSediment yieldSpatial variabilityIberian Peninsula Precipitation has beenrecognizedasoneofthemainfactorsdriving soilerosion and sediment yield(SY),anditsspatialandtemporalvariability isrecognizedas oneofthemainreasons forspatial andtemporalanalysesofsoilerosionvariability.Theweathertypes(WTs)approachclassifiesthecontinuumofatmosphericcirculationintoasmallnumberof categories or typesandhas beenprovena goodindicatorof thespatial and temporalvariabilityofprecipitation.Thus,themainobjectiveofthisstudyistoanalyzetherelationshipbetweenWTs,runoff,soilero-sion(measuredinplots),andsedimentyield(measuredincatchments)indifferentareasoftheIberianPeninsula(IP)withtheaimofdetectingspatialvariationsintheserelationships.Tothisend,hydrologicalandsedimentin-formation covering the IP from several Spanish research teams has been combined, and related with daily WTsestimatedbyusingtheNMC/NCAR40-YearReanalysisProject.Theresultsshowthat,ingeneral,afewWTs(par-ticularly westerly, southwesterly and cyclonic)provide thelargest amounts of precipitation;and southwesterly,northwesterlyandwesterlyWTsplayanimportantroleinrunoffgeneration,erosionandsedimentyieldastheycoincide with the wettest WTs. However, this study highlights the spatial variability of erosion and sedimentyield in the IP according to WT, differentiating (1) areas under the influence of north and/or north-westerlyflows (the north coast of Cantabria and inland central areas), (2) areas under the influence of westerly, south-westerly and cyclonic WTs (western and southwestern IP), (3) areas in which erosion and sediment yield arecontrolledbyeasterlyflows(Mediterraneancoastland),and(4)lastly,atransitionalzoneintheinlandnortheastEbrocatchment,wherewedetectedahighvariabilityintheeffectsofWTsonerosion.OverallresultssuggestthattheuseofWTsderivedfromobservedatmosphericpressurepatternscouldbeausefultoolforinclusioninfutureprojections of the spatial variability of erosion and sediment yield, as models capture pressure fields reliably.© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.