Plants in water-controlled ecosystems: active role in hydrologic processes and response to water stress: I. Scope and general outline

This series of four papers studies the complex dynamics of water-controlled ecosystems from the hydro-ecological point of view [e.g., I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, Water Resour. Res. 36 (1) (2000) 3–9]. After this general outline, the role of climate, soil, and vegetation is modeled in Part II [F. Laio, A. Porporato, L. Ridolfi, I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, Adv. Water Res. 24 (7) (2001) 707–723] to investigate the probabilistic structure of soil moisture dynamics and the water balance. Particular attention is given to the impact of timing and amount of rainfall, plant physiology, and soil properties. From the statistical characterization of the crossing properties of arbitrary levels of soil moisture, Part III develops an expression for vegetation water stress [A. Porporato, F. Laio, L. Ridolfi, I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, Adv. Water Res. 24 (7) (2001) 725–744]. This measure of stress is then employed to quantify the response of plants to soil moisture deficit as well as to infer plant suitability to given environmental conditions and understand some of the reasons for possible coexistence of different species. Detailed applications of these concepts are developed in Part IV [F. Laio, A. Porporato, C.P. Fernandez-Illescas, I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, Adv. Water Res. 24 (7) (2001) 745–762], where we investigate the dynamics of three different water-controlled ecosystems.     

Plants in water-controlled ecosystems: active role in hydrologic processes and response to water stress: II. Probabilistic soil moisture dynamics

A stochastic model for soil moisture dynamics at a point is studied in detail. Rainfall is described as a marked Poisson process, producing a state-dependent infiltration into the soil. Losses due to leakage and evapotranspiration also depend on the existing level of soil moisture through a simplifying but realistic representation of plant physiological characteristics and soil properties. The analytic solution of the steady-state probability distributions is investigated to assess the role of climate, soil, and vegetation in soil moisture dynamics and water balance.     

Modelling of water quality processes in lakes and reservoirs. III

Abstract

Digital mapping techniques are used increasingly in hydrology. One of the constraints on the application of those techniques is the digitizing process, which can be costly and time consuming. This paper describes the background and development of a low cost, easy-to-use system for digitizing maps, based on the use of a video camera as a scanner, and goes on to discuss the application of this system to the task of digitizing the hydrological soil maps of Europe.     

Vegetation influences on water yields from grassland and shrubland ecosystems in the Chihuahuan Desert

This study examines runoff generated under simulated rainfall on Summerford bajada in the Jornada Basin, New Mexico, USA. Forty‐five simulation experiments were conducted on 1 m² and 2 m² runoff plots on grassland, degraded grassland, shrub and intershrub environments located in grassland and shrubland communities. Average hydrographs generated for each environment show that runoff originates earlier on the vegetated plots than on the unvegetated plots. This early generation of runoff is attributed to soil infiltration rates being overwhelmed by the rapid concentration of water at the base of plants by stemflow. Hydrographs from the degraded grassland and intershrub plots rise continuously throughout the 30 min simulation events indicating that these plots do not achieve equilibrium runoff. This continuously rising form is attributed to the progressive development of raindrop‐induced surface seals. Most grassland and shrub plots level out after the initial early rise indicating equilibrium runoff is achieved. Some shrub plots, however, display a decline in discharge after the early rise. The delayed infiltration of water into macropores beneath shrubs with vegetation in their understories is proposed to explain this declining form. Water yields predicted at the community level indicate that the shrubland sheds 150 per cent more water for a given storm event than the grassland. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bioindication role of higher plants in the diagnostics of aquatic ecosystems: Case study of small water bodies in St. Petersburg

The bioindication role of macropytes in the assessment of the environmental conditions of small water bodies under the conditions of a megalopolis is discussed. A comparative characteristic is given to the significance of macrophytes from different ecological groups, including hygrophytes (cattail, reed), hydrophyte (pondweed), and hydatophytes (Canada water weed, hornweed), growing in small water bodies in St. Petersburg, for the biogeochemical indication of environmental pollution by microelements (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Cd) and biogenic elements (K, Ca, Na, P, S). Possible mechanisms of detoxication of heavy metal ions in macrophyte organisms and their role in the stable functioning of water bodies in urban territory under the conditions of anthropogenic pollution are discussed. The prospects of the use of macrophyte groups for the bioindication of pollution and phytoremediation of aquatic ecosystems are analyzed.     

Characterizing spatial and temporal variation in 18O and 2H content of New Zealand river water for better understanding of hydrologic processes

Time series of hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope ratios (δ²H and δ¹⁸O) in rivers can be used to quantify groundwater contributions to streamflow, and timescales of catchment storage. However, these isotope hydrology techniques rely on distinct spatial or temporal patterns of δ²H and δ¹⁸O within the hydrologic cycle. In New Zealand, lack of understanding of spatial and temporal patterns of δ²H and δ¹⁸O of river water hinders development of regional and national-scale hydrological models. We measured δ²H and δ¹⁸O monthly, together with river flow rates at 58 locations across New Zealand over a two-year period. Results show: (a) general patterns of decreasing δ²H and δ¹⁸O with increasing latitude were altered by New Zealand's major mountain ranges; δ²H and δ¹⁸O were distinctly lower in rivers fed from higher elevation catchments, and in eastern rain-shadow areas of both islands; (b) river water δ²H and δ¹⁸O values were partly controlled by local catchment characteristics (catchment slope, PET, catchment elevation, and upstream lake area) that influence evaporation processes; (c) regional differences in evaporation caused the slope of the river water line (i.e., the relationship between δ²H and δ¹⁸O in river water) for the (warmer) North Island to be lower than that of the (cooler, mountain-dominated) South Island; (d) δ²H seasonal offsets (i.e., the difference between seasonal peak and mean values) for individual sites ranged from 0.50‰ to 5.07‰. Peak values of δ¹⁸O and δ²H were in late summer, but values peaked 1 month later at the South Island sites, likely due to greater snow-melt contributions to streamflow. Strong spatial differences in river water δ²H and δ¹⁸O caused by orographic rainfall effects and evaporation may inform studies of water mixing across landscapes. Generally distinct seasonal isotope cycles, despite the large catchment sizes of rivers studied, are encouraging for transit time analysis applications.     

Vegetation response to rainfall seasonality and interannual variability in tropical dry forests

Projected changes in rainfall seasonality and interannual variability are expected to have severe impacts on arid and semi‐arid tropical vegetation, which is characterized by a fine‐tuned adaptation to extreme rainfall seasonality. To study the response of these ecosystems and the related changes in hydrological processes to changes in the amount and seasonality of rainfall, we focused on the caatinga biome, the typical seasonally dry forest in semi‐arid Northeast Brazil. We selected four sites across a gradient of rainfall amount and seasonality and analysed daily rainfall and biweekly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data for hydrological years 2000 to 2014. Rainfall seasonal and interannual statistics were characterized by recently proposed metrics describing duration, timing and intensity of the wet season and compared to similar metrics of NDVI time series. The results show that the caatinga tends to have a more stable response with longer and less variable growing seasons (3.1 ± 0.1 months) compared to the duration wet seasons (2.0 ± 0.5 months). The ecosystem ability to buffer the interannual variability of rainfall is also evidenced by the stability in the timing of the growing season compared to the wet season, which results in variable delays (ranging from 0 to 2 months) between the peak of the rainfall season and the production of leaves by the ecosystem. The analyses show that the shape and size of the related hysteresis loops in the rainfall–NDVI relations are linked to the buffering effects of soil moisture and plant growth dynamics. Finally, model projections of vegetation response to different rainfall scenarios reveal the existence of a maximum in ecosystem productivity at intermediate levels of rainfall seasonality, suggesting a possible trade‐off in the effects of intensity (i.e. amount) and duration of the wet season on vegetation growth and related soil moisture dynamics and transpiration rates. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

西洞庭湖沉水植物分布格局对环境因子及水文情势差异的响应

沉水植物是湖泊生态系统的重要组成部分,其生产力和分布格局受环境因子特别是水文情势决定.洞庭湖是长江流域重要的大型通江湖泊,近年来受人为干扰和气候变化影响,水文节律与水质等环境因子发生改变,导致沉水植物出现衰退现象,急需开展科学恢复,因此有必要对洞庭湖沉水植物深入研究.本研究选取西洞庭湖为研究区域,于2018年和2019年夏季调查了12处典型生境、98个样点的沉水植物与水深、透明度等11个环境因子,采用独立样本T检验和冗余分析方法对沉水植物与环境因子的关系进行分析,对比年际水文情势变化的影响.结果表明：1）西洞庭湖沉水植物主要在水深较浅、水质更优、水体更为稳定的半阻隔子湖和自由连通的湖湾区分布,在河道及水位波动较大的区域分布较少,有、无沉水植物分布样点间存在显著差异的环境因子为水深、透明度、底泥总磷和pH;2）在有沉水植物分布的样点,沉水植物生物量与pH、水深和水体总磷呈显著相关关系;3）自然连通的季节性淹没湖泊沉水植物生物量在2018年高于2019年,可能与2019年5—8月沉水植物关键生长期出现的涨水过程有关,持续的高水位对沉水植物的生长产生了不利影响.维持自然水文节律、湖泊生境异质性与自由连通性、健康的水质等是恢复西洞庭沉水植物的关键,建议在水深低于3 m、营养盐浓度适中、流速及风浪较小的湖湾区或半阻隔湖泊开展沉水植物恢复.     

Evolution of channel morphology and hydrologic response in an urbanizing drainage basin

The Dead Run catchment in Baltimore County, Maryland, has undergone intense urbanization since the late 1950s. Reconstruction of the channel planform from topographic maps dating back to the 1890s and aerial photographs dating back to the 1930s indicates that the channel has remained stable in planform since at least the 1930s. The relative stability of Dead Run contrasts with the alterations in channel morphology reported for other urbanizing streams in the Piedmont physiographic province of the eastern United States. Trend analyses of discharge records in Dead Run show that urban development and stormwater control measures have had significant impacts on the hydrologic response of the catchment. The flood hydraulics of the Dead Run catchment are examined for the event that occurred on 22 June 1972 in association with Hurricane Agnes. A two‐dimensional hydraulic model, TELEMAC‐2D, was used with a finite‐element mesh constructed from a combination of high‐resolution LiDAR topographic data and detailed field survey data to analyse the distribution of boundary shear stress and unit stream power along the channel and floodplain during flooding from Hurricane Agnes. The spatial and temporal distributions of these parameters, relative to channel gradient and channel/valley bottom geometry, provide valuable insights on the stability of the Dean Run channel. The stability of Dead Run's channel planform, in spite of extreme flooding and decades of urban development, is most likely linked to geological controls of channel and floodplain morphology. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vegetation response to rainfall intermittency in drylands: Results from a simple ecohydrological box model

Vegetation in arid and semi-arid regions is affected by intermittent water availability. We discuss a simple stochastic model describing the coupled dynamics of soil moisture and vegetation, and study the effects of rainfall intermittency. Soil moisture dynamics is described by a ecohydrological box model, while vegetation is represented by site occupancy dynamics in a spatially-implicit model. We show that temporal rainfall intermittency allows for vegetation persistence at low values of annual rainfall volume, whereas it would go extinct if rainfall were constant. Rainfall intermittency also generates long-term fluctuations in vegetation cover, even in the absence of significant inter-annual variations in the statistical properties of precipitation.     

Modelling of water quality processes in lakes and reservoirs. II

ABSTRACT

The snowmelt runoff process from small basins is discussed. A differentiation is made between overland flow in the snowpack and groundwater flow induced by infiltrating meltwater. The effect of variations of the snowmelt intensity on streamflow is studied. It is shown that the runoff is high from the first day of snowmelt runoff if the streamflow is caused by overland flow, and that there are pronounced peaks every day, which almost correspond with the snowmelt intensity during daytime. Streamflow originating from groundwater, on the other hand, increases continuously during the snowmelt and shows only small daily peaks in the flow. Simultaneous overland and groundwater flow are also discussed. Observed runoff hydrographs from small basins are analysed in some detail. For the open fields studied the runoff shows the typical character of overland flow. For a rather large forested area the surface runoff also constitutes an important part of the runoff, but the groundwater baseflow is considerable.     

Modelling of water quality processes in rivers and estuaries. I

Abstract

A numerical method for evaluating the possibilities of the extreme wet and the extreme dry periods of a hydrological sequence is presented on the basis of stationary independent and Markovian processes that are currently employed in the planning and operation of water resources systems. The validity of the formula has been checked against the Monte Carlo simulation results obtained on a digital computer. Recurrence relationships for the probability distribution functions of the longest wet and dry periods have been derived by direct enumeration and the statistical properties of these extremes are presented.     

Hazardous hydrological processes in the Dutch Delta and measures aimed to reduce their adverse effect on the population, economy and ecosystems: 1. Geographic-hydrological conditions

Nature Management in the Dutch Delta, comprising the delta-channel systems of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers, under the manifestation of various hazardous hydrological processes is discussed. The main types of such processes and the specific features of their adverse effect on the population, economy, and ecosystems are identified.     

Initial hydrologic and geomorphic response following a wildfire in the Colorado Front Range

A wildfire in May 1996 burned 4690 hectares in two watersheds forested by ponderosa pine and Douglas fir in a steep, mountainous landscape with a summer, convective thunderstorm precipitation regime. The wildfire lowered the erosion threshold in the watersheds, and consequently amplified the subsequent erosional response to shorter time interval episodic rainfall and created both erosional and depositional features in a complex pattern throughout the watersheds. The initial response during the first four years was an increase in runoff and erosion rates followed by decreases toward pre‐fire rates. The maximum unit‐area peak discharge was 24 m³ s^?1 km^?2 for a rainstorm in 1996 with a rain intensity of 90 mm h^?1. Recovery to pre‐fire conditions seems to have occurred by 2000 because for a maximum 30‐min rainfall intensity of 50 mm h^?1, the unit‐area peak discharge in 1997 was 6.6 m³ s^?1 km^?2, while in 2000 a similar intensity produced only 0.11 m³ s^?1 km^?2. Rill erosion accounted for 6 per cent, interrill erosion for 14 per cent, and drainage erosion for 80 per cent of the initial erosion in 1996. This represents about a 200‐fold increase in erosion rates on hillslopes which had a recovery or relaxation time of about three years. About 67 per cent of the initially eroded sediment is still stored in the watersheds after four years with an estimated residence time greater than 300 years. This residence time is much greater than the fire recurrence interval so erosional and depositional features may become legacies from the wildfire and may affect landscape evolution by acting as a new set of initial conditions for subsequent wildfire and flood sequences. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hillslopes in humid-tropical climates aren't always wet: Implications for hydrologic response and landslide initiation in Puerto Rico

The devastating impacts of the widespread flooding and landsliding in Puerto Rico following the September 2017 landfall of Hurricane Maria highlight the increasingly extreme atmospheric disturbances and enhanced hazard potential in mountainous humid-tropical climate zones. Long-standing conceptual models for hydrologically driven hazards in Puerto Rico posit that hillslope soils remain wet throughout the year, and therefore, that antecedent soil wetness imposes a negligible effect on hazard potential. Our post-Maria in situ hillslope hydrologic observations, however, indicate that while some slopes remain wet throughout the year, others exhibit appreciable seasonal and intra-storm subsurface drainage. Therefore, we evaluated the performance of hydro-meteorological (soil wetness and rainfall) versus intensity-duration (rainfall only) hillslope hydrologic response thresholds that identify the onset of positive pore-water pressure, a predisposing factor for widespread slope instability in this region. Our analyses also consider the role of soil-water storage and infiltration rates on runoff generation, which are relevant factors for flooding hazards. We found that the hydro-meteorological thresholds outperformed intensity-duration thresholds for a seasonally wet, coarse-grained soil, although they did not outperform intensity-duration thresholds for a perennially wet, fine-grained soil. These end-member soils types may also produce radically different stormflow responses, with subsurface flow being more common for the coarse-grained soils underlain by intrusive rocks versus infiltration excess and/or saturation excess for the fine-grained soils underlain by volcaniclastic rocks. We conclude that variability in soil-hydraulic properties, as opposed to climate zone, is the dominant factor that controls runoff generation mechanisms and modulates the relative importance of antecedent soil wetness for our hillslope hydrologic response thresholds.