The role of dew as a moisture source for sand microbiotic crusts in the Negev Desert, Israel

Kidron, Giora J.; Herrnstadt, Ilana; Barzilay, Eldad

doi:10.1006/jare.2002.1014

Cited by 179 publications

(179 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Uclés et al (2014) showed that bare soil and crusts contribute 36% of the dewfall in a coastal-steppe ecosystems along the Mediterranean coast [17]. However, other studies, which had measured dew above the ground, found almost little on the soil or crusts [2,61,64]. The reason may be that dew at the soil surface was further impeded due to the soil thermal properties [65].…”

Section: Contribution Of Dew To the Water Balancementioning

confidence: 75%

“…The ratio of growing season dew to rainfall was 7%, which is much smaller than reported in desert environments: 35% for the Negev Desert, Israel [60,61], 37% for Rajasthan Desert, India [13], 67% in a desert riparian forest ecosystem on the eastern edge of the Taklimakan desert [6] and 40% in a coastal site in Mirleft, Morocco [32]. In addition, as distillation stemmed from rain may be considered as an additional source of moisture, which would be calculated as dewfall, thus leading to the overestimation of dew than actual.…”

Section: Contribution Of Dew To the Water Balancementioning

confidence: 84%

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Dynamics of Dew in a Cold Desert-Shrub Ecosystem and Its Abiotic Controls

et al. 2016

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Abstract:The temporal dynamics of dew formation in cold desert-shrub ecosystems are still poorly understood. We examined dew and its abiotic controls in a shrubland in northwestern China with continuous eddy-covariance measurements of latent heat fluxes gathered over the growing-season of 2012. The dew amount was larger in mid-summer than in spring and autumn, but the dew duration was shorter in summer (from~10:00 p.m. to~6:30 a.m.) than in spring and autumn (from~8:30 p.m. to~7:30 a.m.). Dew occurred on 85% (166 days) of growing-season days, with monthly means ranging from 0.09 to 0.16 mm day´1. Dew was dominantly and positively controlled by Relative Humidity (RH), which explained 89% of its variation. Soil heat flux (G), air temperature (T a ), wind speed (W s ), Soil Water Content (SWC) and Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) also influenced dew formation. The most favorable conditions for dew formation were at T a < 17˝C and RH > 75%. The Penman-Monteith equation predicted actual dew reasonably well. The predicted growing-season dew amount (21.3 mm) was equivalent to 7.2% and 8.9% of corresponding rainfall and evapotranspiration, respectively. It is suggested that dew could be a stable and continuous source of water that helps desert plants survive during warm summers.

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Section: Contribution Of Dew To the Water Balancementioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Contribution Of Dew To the Water Balancementioning

confidence: 84%

Dynamics of Dew in a Cold Desert-Shrub Ecosystem and Its Abiotic Controls

et al. 2016

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“…Several trends emerge: Figure 7 Midday gravimetric soil moisture measurements at the shaded under-canopy habitat (UC) and at the exposed intershrub habitat (EXP) on: (a) 27 December 1993 and (b) 28 December 1993 following 20·3 mm that fell during 21-23 December 1993 rainstorms; on (c) 11 February 1995 following 30·0, 0·9 and 5·1 mm that fell during 4-5 February 1995, and on 6 February 1995 and 8 February 1995, respectively; and on (d) 29 January 1997 following 22·3 mm that fell during 22-23 January 1997. The surface is visibly wet once its moisture content exceeds 0·1 mm, which corresponds to approximately 2 per cent of gravimetric soil moisture content (see Kidron et al, 2002). (a) Evaporation rates followed the order of: EXP > SF > WF ≈ EF > NF > UC.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of shrub canopy upon surface temperatures and evaporation in the Negev Desert

Kidron

2008

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Although known as 'islands of fertility' or 'resource islands', information regarding the effect of shrubs upon microclimate in deserts is scarce. Here we report on measurements of evaporation and temperatures that were carried out in and around a pair of shrubs at the Nizzana research site in the western Negev Desert during 1993-94 and during the growing season (NovemberMarch) of 1994-95 and 1996 -1997. Whereas evaporation was measured monthly using mini-atmometers (10 cm diameter and 10 cm tall) at an exposed site and under and around the shrub (at the eastern, southern, western and northern aspects), temperature was measured under a shrub canopy, at its northern aspect, and at an exposed habitat. Evaporation was aspect dependent with increasing rates in the following order: exposed > south-facing > west-facing ≈ east-facing > north-facing > under canopy. Except from the northern aspect, the under-canopy habitat showed substantially lower rates of evaporation in comparison with all other habitats. The differences between the under-canopy and the exposed habitat were larger during wintertime (with the under-canopy habitat having 0·53 times the evaporation rate than that of the exposed habitat) although higher differences in temperatures characterized both habitats in summertime (up to 14·4°C in summer as compared with 6·9°C only in winter). The results were explained by extended surface wetness that characterized the under-canopy habitat following rainstorms. While already being dried out at the exposed habitat, surface wetness at the under canopy habitat persisted for several days afterwards, resulting, following one rainstorm, in vapour pressure of 2·15-2·39 kPa in comparison with only 0·82-0·83 kPa of the exposed habitat. The substantially lower evaporation rates that characterize the under-canopy habitat may thus play a pivotal role in providing preferential conditions for lush under-canopy annual growth.

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“…Its determination is of importance in different areas. In agriculture, dew can either bring moisture to plants (Duvdevani, 1957(Duvdevani, , 1964Zangvil, 1996;Malek, 1999;Ninari & Berliner 2002;Kidron et al 2002;Agam and Berliner, 2006;Berliner et al, 2006;del Campo et al, 2006;del Prado & Sancho 2007;Rao et al 2009;Limm and Dawson, 2010;Kidron et al, 2011;Zhuang et al, 2012;Kidron and Temina, 2013;Ucles et al, 2013) or favor the development of pathogenic germs (Goheen, 1988;Pitblado et al, 1988;Sriva et al, 1993;Franci et al, 1999;Luo et al, 2000). Dew can have a corrosive action on external structures and even on car paints (Schulz and Trubiroha, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dew observed on cars as a proxy for quantitative measurements

Beysens

Pruvost²,

Pruvost³

2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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We describe a simple method to obtain absolute dew determination in any environment, based on observing dew formed at sunrise on cars. Cars are used as dew condensers where dew yield varies on three different parts that nearly all car exhibits: roof top, windshield and window side. The presence or absence of dew at the sunrise at these particular positions provides an observation scale index n with 4 levels, which is used to quantify dew yield. We show that the index n is proportional to the condensed dew volume h (mm) as measured on a standard planar condenser, inclined 30 ° from horizontal, following h=Kn. The validation of this scale and the determination of K (= 0.067 mm within 20-30% uncertainty) is performed with long term experiments in different areas where dew is observed on several cars, either directly weighted on rooftops or calculated from meteo data. This method can thus be of great help to determine without sophisticated measurements or trained observers the dew potential in many places in the world, in particular in arid and semi-arid environment, where dew can help to answer water demand and means to evaluate the dew potential are often limited or lacking.

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The role of dew as a moisture source for sand microbiotic crusts in the Negev Desert, Israel

Cited by 179 publications

References 28 publications

Dynamics of Dew in a Cold Desert-Shrub Ecosystem and Its Abiotic Controls

Dynamics of Dew in a Cold Desert-Shrub Ecosystem and Its Abiotic Controls

The effect of shrub canopy upon surface temperatures and evaporation in the Negev Desert

Dew observed on cars as a proxy for quantitative measurements

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