Desert shrub stemflow and its significance in soil moisture replenishment

Wang, Xinping; Wang, Zhongnan; Berndtsson, Ronny; Zhang, Y. F.; Pan, Ying

doi:10.5194/hess-15-561-2011

Cited by 78 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This study showed that shrub stemflow conserved in the deep soil layers can be an available moisture source for plant growth under arid conditions and that root channels were preferential pathways for the movement of most stemflow water into the soil. Similar experiments by Pan and Wang (2009) and Wang et al (2011b) gave consistent results. Small rainfall events usually affect only the uppermost cm of the soil and easily lost through direct evaporation, and the soil moisture was therefore mainly contributed by the large events (Schwinning and Sala, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Responses of soil moisture in different land cover types to rainfall events in a re-vegetation catchment area of the Loess Plateau, China

Wang

Gao

et al. 2013

CATENA

186

122

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oImplementation of the Grain-for-Green project has resulted in significantly increased vegetative cover on the Loess Plateau of China during the past few decades. The plant communities influence soil moisture recharge and usage processes, particularly the input process, which is directly related to transformation of the limited precipitation into available soil water in the semi-arid Loess Plateau. A study to measure soil moisture dynamics of typical land cover types associated with precipitation events was conducted in a re-vegetated catchment area. Smart probes were inserted at 6 different depths below the ground surface under grass (Andropogon), subshrub (Artemisia scoparia), shrub (Spiraea pubescens), tree (Robinia pseudoacacia), and crop (Zea mays) vegetation to record volumetric soil moisture at 10-minute intervals for a period of 60 days during the growing season in 2011. The advance of the wetting front and total accumulated infiltrated water were measured. The rainfall events were sporadic with widely different intensities, and the soil moisture was replenished mainly by 3-4 heavy precipitation events during July and August. The mean soil moisture content profiles of the 5 vegetation types can be ordered as crop > grass > subshrub> tree> shrub and this relationship displayed time stability. The different land cover types clearly influenced the water infiltration and water input amounts in the re-vegetated area. The subshrub site showed the highest total infiltration amount (164 mm) with precipitation (227 mm) during the study period. The grass site had an infiltration amount of 156 mm. The tree site had a total precipitation of 154 mm and an infiltration amount of 97 mm. The infiltration amount was 136 mm for the shrub site and was the lowest (83 mm) for the crop site. Natural grasses displayed a rapid infiltration rate and the wetting front was able to reach a greater depth.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Responses of soil moisture in different land cover types to rainfall events in a re-vegetation catchment area of the Loess Plateau, China

Wang

Gao

et al. 2013

CATENA

186

122

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“…The special hydrological and physical characteristics of BSC improved and promoted the soil microhabitats in desert areas and increased water holding capacity. The higher unsaturated hydraulic conductivity under low soil matric potential conditions could improve soil water availability in the shallow layers, which would improve the survival rates of some shallow rooted shrubs and herbs and small soil animals in the sand-binding vegetation communities [20,[30][31][32]. It may even lead to an increase in population size.…”

Section: Influences Of Bsc On Various Hydrological Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stemflow by C. korshinskii accounted for 69% of the annual rainfall volume, Around 2.2 mm precipitation was necessary to generate stemflow in the shrub stand which meant that stemflow occurred in 34% of the rain events that happened over the year. Stemflow accounted for 8% of gross precipitation and the average funneling ratio was as high as 90 [20].…”

Section: Rainfall Interception and Redistribution By Sandbinding Shrubsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The soil profile differences, the formation of a BSC layer and soil configuration transformations changed soil water-holding capacity, infiltration processes and the redistribution of precipitation. This meant that the vegetation had to adapt to the changing soil hydrological environments over the long term [10,11,20,28,111].…”

Section: Soil-plant System Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Review of the ecohydrological processes and feedback mechanisms controlling sand-binding vegetation systems in sandy desert regions of China

et al. 2013

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Soil water is the key abiotic limiting factor in desert areas and hydrological processes determine the vegetation composition, patterns and processes in desert regions. The hydrological processes can be altered by vegetation succession. In this paper, we review the major advances in ecohydrological research and their potential impact on plant-water relations in revegetated desert communities. The major advances in ecohydrological research over the past 50 years in desert areas were analyzed using a case study that investigated the long-term ecosystem effects of sand-binding vegetation in the Tengger Desert. Key challenges and opportunities for ecohydrology research in the future are also discussed in the context of the major scientific issues affecting sand binding vegetation.

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“…The double-funnelling effects of stemflow and preferential flow create "hot spots" and "hot moments" by enhancing nutrient cycling rates at the surface soil matrix (Mcclain et al, 2003;Johnson and Lehmann, 2006;Sponseller, 2007), thus substantially contributing to the formation and maintenance of "fertile islands" (Whitford et al, 1997), "resource islands" (Reynolds et al, 1999) or "hydrologic islands" (Rango et al, 2006). This effect is important for the normal function of rainfed dryland ecosystems (Wang et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparisons of stemflow and its bio-/abiotic influential factors between two xerophytic shrub species

Yuan

Gao

2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Stemflow transports nutrient-enriched precipitation to the rhizosphere and functions as an efficient terrestrial flux in water-stressed ecosystems. However, its ecological significance has generally been underestimated because it is relatively limited in amount, and the biotic mechanisms that affect it have not been thoroughly studied at the leaf scale. This study was conducted during the 2014 and 2015 rainy seasons at the northern Loess Plateau of China. We measured the branch stemflow volume (SF b ), shrub stemflow equivalent water depth (SF d ), stemflow percentage of incident precipitation (SF %), stemflow productivity (SFP), funnelling ratio (FR), the meteorological characteristics and the plant traits of branches and leaves of C. korshinskii and S. psammophila. This study evaluated stemflow efficiency for the first time with the combined results of SFP and FR, and sought to determine the inter-and intra-specific differences of stemflow yield and efficiency between the two species, as well as the specific bio-/abiotic mechanisms that affected stemflow. The results indicated that C. korshinskii had a greater stemflow yield and efficiency at all precipitation levels than that of S. psammophila. The largest inter-specific difference generally occurred at the 5-10 mm branches during rains of ≤ 2 mm. Precipitation amount was the most influential meteorological characteristic that affected stemflow yield and efficiency in these two endemic shrub species. Branch angle was the most influential plant trait on FR. For SF b , stem biomass and leaf biomass were the most influential plant traits for C. korshinskii and S. psammophila, respectively. For SFP of these two shrub species, leaf traits (the individual leaf area) and branch traits (branch size and biomass allocation pattern) had a great influence during lighter rains ≤ 10 mm and heavier rains > 15 mm, respectively. The lower precipitation threshold to start stemflow allowed C. korshinskii (0.9 mm vs. 2.1 mm for S. psammophila) to employ more rains to harvest water via stemflow. The beneficial leaf traits (e.g., leaf shape, arrangement, area, amount) might partly explain the greater stemflow production of C. korshinskii. Comparison of SF b between the foliated and manually defoliated shrubs during the 2015 rainy season indicated that the newly exposed branch surface at the defoliated period and the resulting rainfall intercepting effects might be an important mechanism affecting stemflow in the dormant season.

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Desert shrub stemflow and its significance in soil moisture replenishment

Cited by 78 publications

References 21 publications

Responses of soil moisture in different land cover types to rainfall events in a re-vegetation catchment area of the Loess Plateau, China

Responses of soil moisture in different land cover types to rainfall events in a re-vegetation catchment area of the Loess Plateau, China

Review of the ecohydrological processes and feedback mechanisms controlling sand-binding vegetation systems in sandy desert regions of China

Comparisons of stemflow and its bio-/abiotic influential factors between two xerophytic shrub species

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