Soil moisture ecological characteristics of typical shrub and grass vegetation on Shell Island in the Yellow River Delta, China

Anthropogenic Disturbances Shape Soil Capillary and Saturated Water Retention Indirectly via Plant Functional Traits and Soil Organic Carbon in Temperate Forests

“…In this study, we elucidate the coordinated alteration of soil water-physical properties with plant attributes and SOC after disturbance and tease apart how disturbance affects soil water retention via plant attributes and SOC. We will discuss the results in the following points: (1) shifts of the plant community composition and soil water retention after disturbance; (2) disturbance increases soil water retention via SOC and functional traits and mainly through indirect ways; (3) what is the implication to recovering processes as coordinated alterations of soil water retention with plant attributes.…”

“…For example, the increased plant diversity and acquisitive functional trait composition can enhance biogeochemical cycling via increased rates of litterfall decomposition, soil nutrient availability, and soil water retention [27,28,60]. In reverse, high soil water retention and infiltration capacity imply a better soil moisture condition [3,61] which means better habitats and benefit higher plant diversity and net biome productivity [62,63]. In this sense, rather than the view focusing on the link of plant diversity effect and nutrient availability, the positive relationships between tree diversity, acquisitive functional traits, and soil water-physical properties strengthen these biochemical cycles from the perspective of water resources [27].…”

“…Soil water-physical properties support essential soil water functions (such as soil capillary water retention and soil saturated water retention) which could potentially affect biogeochemical cycling and alleviate the negative effect of hydrological variations [1]. Typically, researchers have focused on the influence of soil textures and soil organic carbon content (SOC) on soil water-physical properties [2][3][4][5]. However, in recent studies, researchers have highlighted the diversity influence such as improved biomass and SOC or the presence of particular functional groups on soil water infiltration in the grassland 2 of 12 ecosystem [6,7].…”

Multiple abiotic and biotic drivers of soil water storage capacity in temperate forests recovering from disturbances

“…Fine soil particles, as well as soil organic carbon, tended to accumulate in lower elevational gradients because of the soil erosion processes when rainfall events appeared (Chapin et al 2011;Zhang et al 2019). Accordingly, soil water retention ability could be enhanced by ne soil texture, whereas soil water in ltration function could be improved by increased soil organic carbon contents (Chen et al 2019;Fischer et al 2015;Zhang et al 2019). On the other hand, elevation as an important topographical factor can regulate soil water storage capacity indirectly through in uencing climatic factors which in turn could impact vegetation structure and composition (Hao et al 2003).…”

“…Soil water storage capacity was measured through soil porosity, and this could be divided into capillary porosity, non-capillary porosity and total porosity corresponding to soil capillary storage (CW), soil noncapillary storage (NCW), and soil saturated water storage (TSW)(Chen et al 2019;Xia et al 2017). The CW represents the soil water content in the soil water retention curve when the pressure is -33 kPa whereas the NCW re ects the water contents difference between 0 ~ -33 kPa(Ahuja et al 1993;Liu et al 2009).…”