From Plot to Regional Scales: Interactions of Slope and 1 Catchment Hydrological and Geomorphic Processes in the 2 Spanish Pyrenees

19 The hydrological and geomorphic effects of land use/land cover changes, 20 particularly those associated with vegetation regrowth after farmland abandonment were 21 investigated in the Central Spanish Pyrenees. The main focus was to assess the 22 interactions among slope, catchment, basin, and fluvial channel processes over a range 23 of spatial scales. In recent centuries most Mediterranean mountain areas have been 24 subjected to significant human pressure through deforestation, cultivation of steep 25 slopes, fires, and overgrazing. Depopulation commencing at the beginning of the 20th 26 century, and particularly since the 1960s, has resulted in farmland abandonment and a 27 reduction in livestock numbers, and this has led to an expansion of shrubs and forests. 28 Studies in the Central Spanish Pyrenees, based on experimental plots and catchments, in 29 large basins and fluvial channels, have confirmed that these land use changes have had 30 hydrological and geomorphic consequences regardless of the spatial scale considered, 31 and that processes occurring at any particular scale can be explained by such processes 32 acting on other scales. Studies using experimental plots have demonstrated that during 33 the period of greatest human pressure (mainly the 18th and 19th centuries), cultivation 34 Manuscript Click here to view linked References