Effects of rainfall intensity and intermittency on woody vegetation cover and deep soil moisture in dryland ecosystems

Zhang, Ding-Hai; Li, Xinrong; Feng, Zhang; Zhang, Zhishan; Chen, Yongle

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.10.003

Cited by 46 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Treatment effects of this magnitude (16% larger daily precipitation) are likely to be realized in the coming decades [2–6]. Despite modest effects on precipitation event size, treatments caused surprisingly large increases in soil water infiltration and availability [21, 24]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A less well recognized and tested explanation for woody encroachment is that more intense precipitation patterns ‘push’ water deeper into the soil providing a competitive advantage to plants with deeper rooting patterns ( i . e ., woody plants) [18, 21–23]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental tests of the effects of precipitation intensity are important because ecohydrological models suggest that ecosystem responses may be very sensitive to precipitation intensity [14, 21, 24]. For example, small increases in precipitation intensity may increase plant productivity by decreasing interception and evaporation [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A savanna response to precipitation intensity

Berry

Kulmatiski

2017

PLoS ONE

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As the atmosphere warms, precipitation events are becoming less frequent but more intense. A three-year experiment in Kruger National Park, South Africa, found that fewer, more intense precipitation events encouraged woody plant encroachment. To test whether or not these treatment responses persisted over time, here, we report results from all five years of that experiment. Grass growth, woody plant growth, total fine root number and area and hydrologic tracer uptake by grasses and woody plants were measured in six treated plots (8 m by 8 m) and six control plots. Treatment effects on soil moisture were measured continuously in one treated and one control plot. During the fourth year, increased precipitation intensity treatments continued to decrease water flux in surface soils (0–10 cm), increase water flux in deeper soils (20+ cm), decrease grass growth and increase woody plant growth. Greater root numbers at 20–40 cm and greater woody plant uptake of a hydrological tracer from 45–60 cm suggested that woody plants increased growth by increasing root number and activity (but not root area) in deeper soils. During the fifth year, natural precipitation events were large and intense so treatments had little effect on precipitation intensity or plant available water. Consistent with this effective treatment removal, there was no difference in grass or woody growth rates between control and treated plots, although woody plant biomass remained higher in treated than control plots due to treatment effects in the previous four years. Across the five years of this experiment, we found that 1) small increases in precipitation intensity can result in large increases in deep (20–130 cm) soil water availability, 2) plant growth responses to precipitation intensity are rapid and disappear quickly, and 3) because woody plants accumulate biomass, occasional increases in precipitation intensity can result in long-term increases in woody plant biomass (i.e., shrub encroachment). While results are likely to be site-specific, they provide experimental evidence of large ecohydrological responses to small changes in precipitation intensity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A savanna response to precipitation intensity

Berry

Kulmatiski

2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Researchers have found that although decreases in precipitation suppress the aboveground biomass of plant communities, net primary production (NPP) is significantly more sensitive to increased precipitation than to decreased precipitation, especially in arid and semiarid environments (Knapp & Smith, 2001;Zhao et al, 2019). Most experimental manipulations have been performed in perennial grasslands (Byrne, Adler, & Lauenroth, 2017;Dunnett et al, 1998), and the Central Asia arid area is one of the largest arid regions at middle latitudes, and includes approximately one-third of the arid lands and almost 90% of the temperate deserts worldwide (Lioubimtseva & Henebry, 2009), but research on the effects of precipitation changes on plant communities in this area are rare (Zhang, Li, Zhang, Zhang, & Chen, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevated precipitation alters the community structure of spring ephemerals by changing dominant species density in Central Asia

Jia

Sun²,

Zhang

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Global climate change is one of the most pressing conservation challenges; in particular, changes in precipitation regimes have already substantially influenced terrestrial ecosystems. However, the mechanisms influencing precipitation changes on individual plants and the plant communities in desert grasslands have yet to be fully elucidated. We therefore examine the influence of increased precipitation on plant community compositions in the Gurbantunggut Desert, Xinjiang, northwestern China, from 2005 to 2009. We found that growth of all plant species and the community productivities increased markedly with enhanced water input. Cover of ephemeral synusia also significantly increased due to increased precipitation, implying that the role of the ephemeral community for stabilization of sand dunes was strengthened by increased precipitation. The response of plant community compositions to increased precipitation was primarily reflected as changes in plant density, while increased precipitation did not affect plant species richness and the diversity index. Dominant species drove the response of plant density to increasing precipitation during the five‐year study period. However, the relative responses of rare species were stronger than those of the dominant species, thereby potentially driving species turnover with long‐term increased precipitation. This finding improved our understanding of how increased precipitation drives the changes in plant community composition in desert grasslands and will help to better predict changes in the community composition of ephemerals under future global climate change scenarios.

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“…Although the role of precipitation depth in controlling streamflow in arid and semi-arid zones has been studied, an understanding of hydrological responses to other rainfall characteristics, such as rainfall frequency, is limited (Zhang et al, 2016). According to future water availability projections in arid regions, substantial changes in total annual rainfall are unlikely, but increases in extreme precipitation magnitude along with longer dry spells are expected (Evans et al, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulated response of an intermittent stream to rainfall frequency patterns

Azarnivand

Camporese

Alaghmand

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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The response of intermittent catchments to rainfall is complex and difficult to model. This study uses the spatially distributed CATchment HYdrology (CATHY) model to explore how the frequency of daily rainfall ( ) can affect the hydrologic regime of intermittent catchments. After a multi-objective calibration and validation of CATHY against experimental measurements of streamflow and groundwater levels in a catchment used as a pasture, the role of in affecting streamflow characteristics was explored using different scenarios. With different values of for the dry and wet periods of the year, CATHY showed that a series of frequent rainfall events was often associated with incipient streamflow, independent of the season. Activation of streamflow during the wet season was related to multiple factors and was not often associated with the shallow groundwater levels near the outlet of the catchment.The interplay between rainfall depth and intensity acted as the most important factor for the generation of streamflow. Using the difference between accumulated rainfall and evapotranspiration as a measure of wetness, saturated subsurface flow mechanism generated streamflow in simulations with wetness at least three times larger than mean wetness of other simulations. Although groundwater uprise near the outlet did not effectively contribute to streamflow in the initial days of flow, it strongly correlated with the magnitude of the runoff coefficient. Values of close or equal to the maximum value in the wet season can sustain the connectivity between groundwater and streamflow in the riparian zone. This connectivity increases the catchment wetness, which consequently results in an increase of the generated streamflow. Our study showed that rainfall regimes characterized by different were able to identify distinct flow regimes typical of either intermittent, ephemeral, or nonflowing catchments. Decrease of in the wet season is likely associated with a reduction of streamflow, with a shift of flow regime from intermittent to ephemeral or no-flow.

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Effects of rainfall intensity and intermittency on woody vegetation cover and deep soil moisture in dryland ecosystems

Cited by 46 publications

References 87 publications

A savanna response to precipitation intensity

A savanna response to precipitation intensity

Elevated precipitation alters the community structure of spring ephemerals by changing dominant species density in Central Asia

Simulated response of an intermittent stream to rainfall frequency patterns

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