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Abstract. Progress in better understanding and modeling Earth surface systems requires an ongoing integration of data and numerical models. Advances are currently hampered by technical barriers that inhibit finding, accessing, and executing modeling software with related datasets. We propose a design framework for Data Components, which are software packages that provide access to particular research datasets or types of data. Because they use a standard interface based on the Basic Model Interface (BMI), Data Components can function as plug-and-play components within modeling frameworks to facilitate seamless data–model integration. To illustrate the design and potential applications of Data Components and their advantages, we present several case studies in Earth surface processes analysis and modeling. The results demonstrate that the Data Component design provides a consistent and efficient way to access heterogeneous datasets from multiple sources and to seamlessly integrate them with various models. This design supports the creation of open data–model integration workflows that can be discovered, accessed, and reproduced through online data sharing platforms, which promotes data reuse and improves research transparency and reproducibility.

 

Key Points Modeled ecosystem response to climate follows the “geo‐ecological law of distribution,” highlights the importance of ecohdyrologic refugia Woody Plant Encroachment is predicted as a three‐phase phenomenon: early establishment, rapid expansion, and woody plant equilibrium Regime shifts from grassland to shrubland are marked by vegetation cover thresholds 

Hillslope topographic change in response to climate and climate change is a key aspect of landscape evolution. The impact of short‐duration rainstorms on hillslope evolution in arid regions is persistently questioned but often not directly examined in landscape evolution studies, which are commonly based on mean climate proxies. This study focuses on hillslope surface processes responding to rainstorms in the driest regions of Earth. We present a numerical model for arid, rocky hillslopes with lithology of a softer rock layer capped by a cliff‐forming resistant layer. By representing the combined action of bedrock and clast weathering, cliff‐debris ravel, and runoff‐driven erosion, the model can reproduce commonly observed cliff‐profile morphology. Numerical experiments with a fixed base level were used to test hillslope response to cliff‐debris grain size, rainstorm intensities, and alternation between rainstorm patterns. The persistence of vertical cliffs and the pattern of sediment sorting depend on rainstorm intensities and the size of cliff debris. Numerical experiments confirm that these two variables could have driven the landscape in the Negev Desert (Israel) toward an observed spatial contrast in topographic form over the past 10⁵–10⁶ years. For a given total storm rain depth, short‐duration higher‐intensity rainstorms are more erosive, resulting in greater cliff retreat distances relative to longer, low‐intensity storms. Temporal alternation between rainstorm regimes produces hillslope profiles similar to those previously attributed to Quaternary oscillations in the mean climate. We suggest that arid hillslopes may undergo considerable geomorphic transitions solely by alternating intra‐storm patterns regardless of rainfall amounts.

 

Abstract. Computational modeling occupies a unique niche in Earth and environmental sciences. Models serve not just as scientific technology and infrastructure but also as digital containers of the scientific community's understanding of the natural world. As this understanding improves, so too must the associated software. This dual nature – models as both infrastructure and hypotheses – means that modeling software must be designed to evolve continually as geoscientific knowledge itself evolves. Here we describe design principles, protocols, and tools developed by the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) to promote a flexible, interoperable, and ever-improving research software ecosystem. These include a community repository for model sharing and metadata, interface and ontology standards for model interoperability, language-bridging tools, a modular programming library for model construction, modular software components for data access, and a Python-based execution and model-coupling framework. Methods of community support and engagement that help create a community-centered software ecosystem are also discussed. 

Bedrock landslides shape topography and mobilize large volumes of sediment. Yet, interactions between landslide‐produced sediment and fluvial systems that together govern large‐scale landscape evolution are not well understood. To explain morphological patterns observed in steep, landslide‐prone terrain, we explicitly model stochastic landsliding and associated sediment dynamics. The model accounts for several common landscape features such as slope frequency distributions, which include values in excess of regional stability limits, quasi‐planar hillslopes decorated with straight, closely spaced channel‐like features, and accumulation of sediment in valley networks rather than on hillslopes. Stochastic landsliding strongly affects the magnitude and timing of sediment supply to the fluvial system. We show that intermittent sediment supply is ultimately reflected in topography. At dynamic equilibrium, landslide‐derived sediment pulses generate persistent landscape dynamism through the formation and breaching of landslide dams and epigenetic gorges as landslides force shifts in channel positions. Our work highlights the importance of interactions between landslides and sediment dynamics that ultimately control landscape‐scale response to environmental change.

 

Abstract. Here we examine the landscape of New Zealand'sMarlborough Fault System (MFS), where the Australian and Pacific plates obliquelycollide, in order to study landscape evolution and the controls on fluvialpatterns at a long-lived plate boundary. We present maps of drainageanomalies and channel steepness, as well as an analysis of the plan-vieworientations of rivers and faults, and we find abundant evidence ofstructurally controlled drainage that we relate to a history of drainagecapture and rearrangement in response to mountain-building and strike-slipfaulting. Despite clear evidence of recent rearrangement of the western MFSdrainage network, rivers in this region still flow parallel to older faults,rather than along orthogonal traces of younger, active strike-slip faults.Such drainage patterns emphasize the importance of river entrenchment,showing that once rivers establish themselves along a structural grain,their capture or avulsion becomes difficult, even when exposed to newweakening and tectonic strain. Continued flow along older faults may alsoindicate that the younger faults have not yet generated a fault damage zonewith the material weakening needed to focus erosion and reorient rivers.Channel steepness is highest in the eastern MFS, in a zone centered on theKaikōura ranges, including within the low-elevation valleys of main stemrivers and at tributaries near the coast. This pattern is consistent with anincrease in rock uplift rate toward a subduction front that is locked on itssouthern end. Based on these results and a wealth of previous geologicstudies, we propose two broad stages of landscape evolution over the last 25 million years of orogenesis. In the eastern MFS, Miocene folding above blindthrust faults generated prominent mountain peaks and formed major transverserivers early in the plate collision history. A transition to Pliocenedextral strike-slip faulting and widespread uplift led to cycles of riverchannel offset, deflection and capture of tributaries draining across activefaults, and headward erosion and captures by major transverse rivers withinthe western MFS. We predict a similar landscape will evolve south of theHope Fault, as the locus of plate boundary deformation migrates southwardinto this region with time.