Climate and Land Use Change Effects on Sediment Production in a Dry Tropical Forest Catchment

Understanding the natural and anthropogenic drivers that influence erosion sediment transport is a key prerequisite for adequate management of river basins, where, especially in tropical catchments, there are few direct measurements or modeling studies. Therefore, this study analyzed effect human-induced land-use changes ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) related rainfall patterns on soil catchment-scale dynamics with SEDD (Sediment Delivery Distributed) model. In 393 km2 Tonusco basin, representative tropical, mountainous conditions, daily data were used to quantify erosivity satellite images evaluation cover factor between 1977 2015. The final model combined loss, calculated by RUSLE, routing-based delivery ratio, was calibrated validated from load recorded at basin outlet. results detected great reduction vegetation catchment during last decade 79.5 29.5%, important runoff events linked La Niña episodes. Soil rates locally very high, over 120 Mg ha−1yr−1, yields estimated range 6.17–8.23 ha−1yr−1.