The relationship between annual rainfall and sediment yield in arid and semi-arid areas. The case of the northern Negev

A positive relationship between these two variables up to 300 mm is assumed by most authors. This assumption encounters serious difficulties when applied to the northern Negev desert (70 to 250 mm) where a converse relationship seems to fit the field conditions better. The explanation proposed for this is that available energy, under the given rainfall conditions, is largely controlled by the efficiency of the transformation of rainfall into runoff. This efficiency is mainly dependent on the ratio of bare bedrock to soil cover. -from Authors