Water storage and runoff processes in plinthic soils under forest and pasture in eastern Amazonia

Moraes, Jorge Marcos de; Schuler, A. E.; Dunne, Thomas; Figueiredo, R. de O.; Victória, Reynaldo Luiz

doi:10.1002/hyp.6213

Cited by 119 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Hence, a common approach is to compare the hydrology of catchments with different land cover, but similar size, topography, soils, geology and climate (e.g. Germer et al, 2009;Moraes et al, 2006;Roa-García et al, 2011).…”

Section: E Muñoz-villers and J J Mcdonnell: Land Use Change Effmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land use change effects on runoff generation in a humid tropical montane cloud forest region

Muñoz-Villers¹,

McDonnell

2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

117

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Abstract. While tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) provide critical hydrological services to downstream regions throughout much of the humid tropics, catchment hydrology and impacts associated with forest conversion in these ecosystems remain poorly understood. Here, we compare the annual, seasonal and event-scale streamflow patterns and runoff generation processes of three neighbouring headwater catchments in central Veracruz (eastern Mexico) with similar pedological and geological characteristics, but different land cover: old-growth TMCF, 20 yr-old naturally regenerating TMCF and a heavily grazed pasture. We used a 2 yr record of high resolution rainfall and stream flow data (2008)(2009)(2010) in combination with stable isotope and chemical tracer data collected for a series of storms during a 6-week period of increasing antecedent wetness (wetting-up cycle). Our results showed that annual and seasonal streamflow patterns in the mature and secondary forest were similar. In contrast, the pasture showed a 10 % higher mean annual streamflow, most likely because of a lower rainfall interception. During the wetting-up cycle, storm runoff ratios increased at all three catchments (from 11 to 54 % for the mature forest, 7 to 52 % for the secondary forest and 3 to 59 % for the pasture). With the increasing antecedent wetness, hydrograph separation analysis showed progressive increases of pre-event water contributions to total stormflow (from 35 to 99 % in the mature forest, 26 to 92 % in the secondary forest and 64 to 97 % in the pasture). At all three sites, rainfall-runoff responses were dominated by subsurface flow generation processes for the majority of storms. However, for the largest and most intense storm (typically occurring once every 2 yr), sampled under wet antecedent conditions, the event water contribution in the pasture (34 % on average) was much higher than in the forests (5 % on average), indicating that rainfall infiltration capacity of the pasture was exceeded. This result suggests that despite the high permeability of the volcanic soils and underlying substrate in this TMCF environment, the conversion of forest to pasture may lead to important changes in runoff generation processes during large and high intensity storms. On the other hand, our results also showed that 20 yr of natural regeneration may be enough to largely restore the original hydrological conditions of this TMCF.

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Section: E Muñoz-villers and J J Mcdonnell: Land Use Change Effmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land use change effects on runoff generation in a humid tropical montane cloud forest region

Muñoz-Villers¹,

McDonnell

2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

117

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“…Most of our current knowledge of how Amazon land-use change influences soil hydrology and runoff generation comes from examining the effects of clearing forest for pasture production. The replacement of old-growth forest by pasture affects the hydrology of watersheds by increasing soil compaction, which in turn reduces infiltrability and hydraulic conductivity at shallow depths and shifts flowpaths from predominantly vertical towards lateral (Biggs et al, 2006;Chaves et al, 2008;De Moraes et al, 2006;Zimmermann et al, 2006). These changes have been shown to result in a longer duration and greater volumes of storm flow and greater total runoff (Germer et al, 2009;Trancoso, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil hydraulic response to land-use change associated with the recent soybean expansion at the Amazon agricultural frontier

Scheffler

Neill

Krusche

et al. 2011

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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Clearing for large-scale soy production and the displacement of cattle-breeding by soybeans are major features of land-use change in the lowland Amazon that can alter hydrologic properties of soils and the runoff generation over large areas. We measured infiltrability and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) under natural forest, pasture, and soybeans on Oxisols in a region of rapid soybean expansion in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The forest-pasture conversion reduced infiltrability from 1258 to 100 mm/h and Ksat at all depths. The pasture-soy conversion increased infiltrability from 100 to 469 mm/h (attributed to shallow disking), did not affect Ksat at 12.5 cm, but decreased Ksat at 30 cm from 122 to 80 mm/h, suggesting that soybean cultivation enhances subsoil compaction. Permeability decreased markedly with depth under forest, did not change under pasture, and averaged out at one fourth the forest value under soybeans with a similar pattern of anisotropy. Comparisons of permeability with rainfall intensities indicated that land-use change did not alter the predominantly vertical water movement within the soil. We conclude that this landscape is well buffered against land-use changes regarding near-surface hydrology, even though short-lived ponding and perched water tables may occur locally during high-intensity rainfall on pastures and under soybeans.

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“…Although surface runoff can occur in tropical forests (e.g. Chaves et al, 2008;Johnson et al, 2006;de Moraes et al, 2006) and was observed on paths in NF, a major contribution of surface runoff is unlikely due to high infiltration rates and hydraulic conductivity of forest soils (Owuor 30 et al, 2018). We therefore conclude that the observed signatures were caused by shallow sub-surface flow during rainfall events, which agrees with findings in NF by Jacobs et al (in review) and is commonly observed in tropical montane forested catchments (e.g.…”

Section: Dominant Water Sources 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

Land use alters dominant water sources and flow paths in tropical montane catchments in East Africa

Jacobs¹,

Timbe²,

Weeser³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Conversion of natural forest to other land uses could lead to significant changes in catchment hydrology, but the nature of these changes has been insufficiently investigated in tropical montane catchments, especially in Africa. To address 20 this knowledge gap, we identified stream water sources and flow paths in three tropical montane sub-catchments (27-36 km²) with different land use (natural forest, smallholder agriculture and commercial tea plantations) within a 1 021 km² catchment in the Mau Forest Complex, Kenya. Weekly samples were collected from stream water, precipitation and soil water for 75 weeks and analysed for stable water isotopes (δ 2 H and δ 18 O) for mean transit time estimation, whereas trace element samples from stream water and potential end members were collected over a period of 55 weeks for end member mixing analysis. 25Stream water mean transit time was similar (~4 years) in the three sub-catchments, and ranged from 3.2-3.3 weeks in forest soils and 4.5-7.9 weeks in pasture soils at 15 cm depth to 10.4-10.8 weeks in pasture soils at 50 cm depth. The contribution of springs and wetlands to stream discharge increased from 18, 1 and 48 % during low flow to 22, 51 and 65 % during high flow in the natural forest, smallholder agriculture and tea plantation sub-catchments, respectively. The dominant stream water source in the tea plantation sub-catchment was spring water (56 %), while precipitation was dominant in the smallholder 30 agriculture (59 %) and natural forest (45 %) sub-catchments. These results confirm that catchment hydrology is strongly influenced by land use, which could have serious consequences for water-related ecosystem services, such as provision of clean water.Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi

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Water storage and runoff processes in plinthic soils under forest and pasture in eastern Amazonia

Cited by 119 publications

References 24 publications

Land use change effects on runoff generation in a humid tropical montane cloud forest region

Land use change effects on runoff generation in a humid tropical montane cloud forest region

Soil hydraulic response to land-use change associated with the recent soybean expansion at the Amazon agricultural frontier

Land use alters dominant water sources and flow paths in tropical montane catchments in East Africa

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