Coupling soil water and shoot dynamics in three grass species: A spatial stochastic model on water competition in Neotropical savanna

Segarra, José; Acevedo, Miguel F.; Raventós, José; García-Núñez, Carlos; Silva, J.F.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.06.045

Cited by 3 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…We primarily considered temporal competition for water, whereas spatial competition was only addressed implicitly through the species‐specific access to the unsaturated zone and groundwater (Figure ). However, local and spatial competition for water of individual trees may be another driver of species coexistence (Segarra et al ., ; Brolsma et al ., ) and add value to the assessment of combined ecohydrological management strategies (Poff, ; Haynes et al ., ; Andersen and Shafroth, ; Poff and Zimmerman, ; Cross et al ., ; Dawson et al ., ). This is particularly of interest for ecosystems with long‐living trees and heterogeneous distribution of plant available water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Ecosystem Management Along Ephemeral Rivers: Trading Off Socio‐Economic Water Supply and Vegetation Conservation under Flood Regime Uncertainty

Arnold

Attinger

Frank

et al. 2014

River Research & Apps

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In ecosystems driven by water availability, plant community dynamics depend on complex interactions between vegetation, hydrology, and human water resources use. Along ephemeral rivers-where water availability is erratic-vegetation and people are particularly vulnerable to changes in each other's water use. Sensible management requires that water supply be maintained for people, while preserving ecosystem health. Meeting such requirements is challenging because of the unpredictable water availability. We applied information gap decision theory to an ecohydrological system model of the Kuiseb River environment in Namibia. Our aim was to identify the robustness of ecosystem and water management strategies to uncertainties in future flood regimes along ephemeral rivers. We evaluated the trade-offs between alternative performance criteria and their robustness to uncertainty to account for both (i) human demands for water supply and (ii) reducing the risk of species extinction caused by water mining. Increasing uncertainty of flood regime parameters reduced the performance under both objectives. Remarkably, the ecological objective (species coexistence) was more sensitive to uncertainty than the water supply objective. However, within each objective, the relative performance of different management strategies was insensitive to uncertainty. The 'best' management strategy was one that is tuned to the competitive species interactions in the Kuiseb environment. It regulates the biomass of the strongest competitor and, thus, at the same time decreases transpiration, thereby increasing groundwater storage and reducing pressure on less dominant species. This robust mutually acceptable strategy enables species persistence without markedly reducing the water supply for humans. This study emphasises the utility of ecohydrological models for resource management of water-controlled ecosystems. Although trade-offs were identified between alternative performance criteria and their robustness to uncertain future flood regimes, management strategies were identified that help to secure an ecologically sustainable water supply.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Ecosystem Management Along Ephemeral Rivers: Trading Off Socio‐Economic Water Supply and Vegetation Conservation under Flood Regime Uncertainty

Arnold

Attinger

Frank

et al. 2014

River Research & Apps

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“…Climate models predict diminishing trends of rainfall for the region containing the study area (Dai, 2010;Mata, 1996). For this reason, we have developed a model to study the response to drought of some types of dominant grasses in the savanna, based on Segarra et al (2009). In that paper we presented a theoretical stochastic model of root competition for water, which couples soil water availability, phenology, and root and shoot architecture applied to three Neotropical savanna grasses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper, we propose an extension of Segarra et al (2009) model to determine the shading from neighboring plants. Recent ecological models tend to separate the canopy leaves into sunlit and shaded categories, which is found to provide a considerable advantage and improvement in the scale-up calculations of photosynthesis and transpiration from leaf to canopy (Gates, 2003;Wang et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling competitive ability of Neotropical savanna grasses: Simulation of shading and drought impacts on biomass production

Segarra

Raventós

Acevedo

et al. 2013

Ecological Informatics

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“…Intensive research on belowground interactions has been conducted in natural and experimental fields (Ludwig et al, 2004a;Rodríguez et al, 2007) in climates ranging from tropical and temperate (Mommer et al, 2012) to arid and semiarid (Bartelheimer et al, 2006;Fernández et al, 2006a;Segarra et al, 2009). Walter (1939) proposed a 2-layer hypothesis to explain the coexistence of savanna trees and grasses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine root distribution and belowground interactions in an alley silvopasture system in northern China

Lai¹,

Zhang²,

Wu³

et al. 2014

Turk J Agric For

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Successful agroforestry management depends on the interactions between the mixed species. Belowground interactions between shrubs and native grasses are complicated and poorly understood in China's agroforestry practice, especially in the silvopasture systems of droughty northern China. The distribution of fine roots (<2 mm) in an alley silvopasture system consisting of Caragana microphylla Lam. and local grasses was compared to those in a degraded pasture plot using soil cores. Fine root production was examined in these plots using ingrowth cores. We found that the introduction of C. microphylla did not change the vertical distribution pattern of fine roots of grassy plants but had a great impact on belowground production in the ecosystem. Grass fine roots decreased with depth in both the silvopasture system and the degraded pasture. Grass fine roots were mostly distributed in the top 40 cm of the soil, but they extended to deeper soil layers through root elongation. C. microphylla, in contrast, occupied the deeper soil layer, in which water was continuously available. We conclude that the belowground interactions between native grasses and C. microphylla in sandy soil can be explained by Walter's 2-layer hypothesis, which is used to explain the coexistence of trees and grasses. Our results draw attention to the interspecific configuration of the silvopasture system and belowground interactions of plants in semiarid and arid regions.

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Coupling soil water and shoot dynamics in three grass species: A spatial stochastic model on water competition in Neotropical savanna

Cited by 3 publications

References 33 publications

Ecosystem Management Along Ephemeral Rivers: Trading Off Socio‐Economic Water Supply and Vegetation Conservation under Flood Regime Uncertainty

Ecosystem Management Along Ephemeral Rivers: Trading Off Socio‐Economic Water Supply and Vegetation Conservation under Flood Regime Uncertainty

Modelling competitive ability of Neotropical savanna grasses: Simulation of shading and drought impacts on biomass production

Fine root distribution and belowground interactions in an alley silvopasture system in northern China

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