Effect of Honey Mesquite on the Water Balance of Texas Rolling Plains Rangeland

Abstract

Understanding hydrologic processes on rangelands is essential to determine if water yield will increase through shrub management. Nine nonweighable lysimeters were monitored for 3 years to determine the water balance as hrfhrenced by vegetation. Cover types studied were honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) plus herbaceous vegetation (M+H), mesquite removed leaving only herbaceous vegetation (H), and mesquite and herbaceous vegetation removed (BG). Throughout the study, BG lyshneters had greater soil water content than the vegetated sites but, regardless of cover type, only O&1.4% of precipitation drained below 3 m. Runoff and interrill erosion were closely associated with rainfall amount, peak short-term storm intensity, and amount of bare ground. Evapotranspiration accounted for over 95% of water leaving the vegetated sites. Herbaceous vegetation on the I-l lysimeters increased following mesquite removal. This increase offset any water yield benefit that may have accrued through shrub management. Results indicate that there is essentially no net change in deep drainage, evapotranspiration, or runoff on sites where the herbaceous component increases in response to shrub removal.

Effect of removal of Juniperus ashei on evapotranspiration and runoff in the Seco Creek Watershed

“…allows one to quantify the effect of land management on a water balance component that is a large fraction of precipitation [Lane et al, 1984;Carlson et al, 1990;Gay, 1993] and for which differences may be more detectable.…”

“…An option often considered [Hibbert, 1983;Carlson et al, 1990;Jofre and Rambal, 1993;Davis, 1993] is to replace deep-rooted woody species, which may intercept a substantial amount of precipitation [Eddieman and Miller, 1991] and have high whole-plant transpiration rates due to high leaf areas [Angell and Miller, 1994;Owens, 1996], with shallow-rooted herbaceous vegetation that usually intercepts less precipitation and has less leaf area. The amount of increased water yields from these watersheds, if any, resulting from vegetation management depends upon vegetation type or land use [Dunn and Mackay, 1995], vegetation treatment type or soils [Richardson et al, 1979], and climate [Griffen and McCarl, 1989].…”

Impacto hidrológico del cambio de uso del suelo de un pastizal nativo a praderas de zacate buffel (Pennisetum ciliare L.)

“…En el caso de los pastizales, se ha evaluado el cambio de diferentes escenarios de manejo desde un punto de vista hidrológico. Por ejemplo, para incrementar la producción de agua en cuencas semiáridas, se ha reportado que la manipulación de la vegetación mediante la eliminación del estrato arbóreo no tiene efectos significativos en el balance hídrico, al reducir el número de plantas de mezquite o encino (Carlson et al, 1990;Epifanio et al, 1991). Sin embargo, la forma de eliminar el estrato arbóreo sí tiene mucho que ver en la respuesta del sitio en términos hidrológicos y en la conservación de los recursos.…”

“…In the case of rangelands, changing from one management scenario to another has been evaluated from a hydrological standpoint. For example, to increase water production in semi-arid watersheds, it has been reported that the manipulation of vegetation by removing the tree layer has no significant effects on water balance, when reducing the number of mesquite or oak plants (Carlson et al, 1990;Epifanio et al, 1991). However, the way of removing the tree layer does have a lot to do with the response of the site in hydrological terms and in conservation of resources.…”

Seed Bank Depletion: The Key to Long-Term Downy Brome ( Bromus tectorum L.) Management

“…Japanese will grow on many soil types including sand (Brand 1980), silt (Carlson et al 1990), clay (Blank et al 1992), and on claypan (Haferkamp et al 1993). Japanese brome grows best in fine textured soils with high amounts of litter (Whisenant 1989).…”