Mesoscale spatial variability of soil‐water content in an alpine meadow on the northern Tibetan Plateau

Soil water is an important limiting factor for restoring alpine meadows on the northern Tibetan Plateau. Field studies of soil‐water content (SWC), however, are rare due to the harsh environment, especially in a mesoscale alpine‐meadow ecosystem. The objective of this study was to assess the spatial variability of SWC and the temporal variation of the spatial variability in a typical alpine meadow using a geostatistical approach. SWC was measured using a neutron probe to a depth of 50 cm at 113 locations on 22 sampling occasions in a 33.5‐hm² alpine meadow during the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons. Mean SWC in the study plot for the two growing seasons was 18.7, 14.0, 13.9, 14.3, and 14.8% for depths of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 cm, respectively, and SWC was significantly larger at 10 cm than at other depths. SWC was negatively correlated with its spatial variability, and the spatial variability was higher when SWC was lower. Thirty‐three sampling locations in this study plot met the requirement of accuracy of the central limit theorem. A Gaussian model was the best fit for SWC semivariance at depths of 10, 20, and 30 cm, and the spatial structural ratio was between 0.997 and 1, indicating a strong spatial dependence of SWC. The sill and range fluctuated temporally, and the nugget and spatial structural ratio did not generally vary with time. The sill was significantly positively correlated with SWC and was initially stable and then tend to increase with SWC. The nugget, range, and spatial structure ratio, however, were not correlated with SWC. These results contribute to our understanding of SWC spatial distribution and variation in alpine meadows and provide basic empirical SWC data for mesoscale model simulations, optimizing sampling strategies and managing meadows on the Tibetan Plateau.     

Soil organic carbon and nitrogen content of density fractions and effect of meadow degradation to soil carbon and nitrogen of fractions in alpine Kobresia meadow

This research was conducted on the non-disturbed native alpine Kobresia meadow(YF) and the severely degraded meadow(SDL) of Dari County of Qinghai Province.By a density fractionation approach,each soil sample was divided into two fractions:light fraction(LF) and heavy fraction(HF).The obtained fractions were analyzed for organic carbon(OC) and nitrogen(N) concentrations.The results showed:(1) the OC concentration in HF and LF was 3.84% and 28.63% respectively while the nitrogen concentration in HF and LF wa...     

Thermal effects of lateral supra‐permafrost water flow around a thermokarst lake on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Both the inflow and outflow of supra‐permafrost water to lakes play important roles in the hydrologic process of thermokarst lakes. The accompanying thermal effects on the adjacent permafrost are required for assessing their influences on the development of thermokarst lakes. For these purposes, the lake water level, temperature dynamics, and supra‐permafrost water flow of a lake were monitored on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau. In addition, the spatial and temporal variation of the active layer thickness and permafrost distribution around the lake were investigated by combining ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography, and borehole temperature monitoring. The results revealed that the yearly unfrozen supra‐permafrost water flow around the lake lasted approximately 5 months. The temperature and water level measurements during this period indicate that the lake water was recharged by relatively colder supra‐permafrost water from the north‐western lakeshore and was discharged through the eastern lakeshore. This process, accompanied by heat exchange with the underlying permafrost, might cause a directional difference of the active layer thickness and permafrost characteristics around the lake. Specifically, the active layer thickness variation was minimal, and the ice‐rich permafrost was found adjacent to the lakeshore along the recharge groundwater pathways, whereas a deeper active layer and ice‐poor permafrost were observed close to the lakeshore from which the warm lake water was discharged. This study suggests that the lateral flow of warm lake water can be a major driver for the rapid expansion of thermokarst lakes and provides clues for evaluating the relationships between the thermokarst expansion process and climate warming.     

Soil organic carbon and nitrogen content of density fractions and effect of meadow degradation to soil carbon and nitrogen of fractions in alpine <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kobresia</Emphasis> meadow

This research was conducted on the non-disturbed native alpine Kobresia meadow (YF) and the severely degraded meadow (SDL) of Dari County of Qinghai Province. By a density fractionation approach, each soil sample was divided into two fractions: light fraction (LF) and heavy fraction (HF). The obtained fractions were analyzed for organic carbon (OC) and nitrogen (N) concentrations. The results showed: (1) the OC concentration in HF and LF was 3.84% and 28.63% respectively while the nitrogen concentration in HF and LF was 0.362% and 1.192% respectively in 0–10 cm depth. C:N ratio was 10.6 in HF and 23.8 in LF respectively. (2) As far as the ratio of OC in given fraction to that in gross sample was concerned, dominance of OC in HF was obvious in the whole soil profile. OC in HF increased from 78.95% to 90.33%, while OC in LF decreased from 21.05% to 9.68% with depths. (3) Soil total OC amounted to 47.47 in YF while 17.63 g · kg⁻¹ in SDL, in which the OC content in HF decreased from 37.31 to 16.01 g · kg⁻¹ while OC content in LF decreased from 10.01 to 1.62 g · kg⁻¹. In other words, results of OC and N content show meadow degradation led to the loss of 57% OC in HF and 84% OC in LF from originally native ecosystem on alpine meadow. In addition, meadow degradation led to the loss of 43% N in HF and 79% N in LF from originally native ecosystem on alpine meadow. (4) The main reason for loss of C and N in LF during meadow degradation was not attributed to the decrease of OC and N concentration in LF and LF, but to the decrease in LF dry weight. Loss of N was far lower than loss of C in HF. This may suggest that there is difference in protection mode of C and N in HF. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30660120), Science Support Project in the Source Region of the Three Rivers (Grant No. 2005-SN-2)     

Impacts of permafrost changes on alpine ecosystem in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Alpine cold ecosystem with permafrost environment is quite sensitive to climatic changes and the changes in permafrost can significantly affect the alpine ecosystem. The vegetation coverage, grassland biomass and soil nutrient and texture are selected to indicate the regime of alpine cold ecosystems in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The interactions between alpine ecosystem and permafrost were investigated with the depth of active layer, permafrost thickness and mean annual ground temperature (MAGTs). Based on the statistics model of GPTR for MAGTs and annual air temperatures, an analysis method was developed to analyze the impacts of permafrost changes on the alpine ecosystems. Under the climate change and human engineering activities, the permafrost change and its impacts on alpine ecosystems in the permafrost region between the Kunlun Mountains and the Tanggula Range of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are studied in this paper. The results showed that the per- mafrost changes have a different influence on different alpine ecosystems. With the increase in the thickness of active layer, the vegetation cover and biomass of the alpine cold meadow exhibit a significant conic reduction, the soil organic matter content of the alpine cold meadow ecosystem shows an exponential decrease, and the surface soil materials become coarse and gravelly. The alpine cold steppe ecosystem, however, seems to have a relatively weak relation to the permafrost environment. Those relationships resulted in the fact that the distribution area of alpine cold meadow decreased by 7.98% and alpine cold swamp decreased by 28.11% under the permafrost environment degradation during recent 15 years. In the future 50 years the alpine cold meadow ecosystems in different geomorphologic units may have different responses to the changes of the permafrost under different climate warming conditions, among them the alpine cold meadow and swamp ecosystem located in the low mountain and plateau area will have a relatively serious degradation. Furthermore, from the angles of grassland coverage and biological production the variation characteristics of high-cold eco- systems in different representative regions and different geomorphologic units under different climatic conditions were quantitatively assessed. In the future, adopting effective measures to protect permafrost is of vital importance to maintaining the stability of permafrost engineering and alpine cold eco- systems in the plateau.     

A soil water and heat transfer model including changes in soil frost and thaw fronts

Freeze-thaw processes in soils,including changes in frost and thaw fronts(FTFs),are important physical processes.The movement of FTFs affects soil hydrothermal characteristics,as well as energy and water exchanges between the land surface and the atmosphere and hydrothermal processes in the land surface.This paper reduces the issue of soil freezing and thawing to a multiple moving-boundary problem and develops a soil water and heat transfer model which considers the effects of FTF on soil hydrothermal processes.A local adaptive variable-grid method is used to discretize the model.Sensitivity tests based on the hierarchical structure of the Community Land Model(CLM)show that multiple FTFs can be continuously tracked,which overcomes the difficulties of isotherms that cannot simultaneously simulate multiple FTFs in the same soil layer.The local adaptive variable-grid method is stable and offers computational efficiency several times greater than the high-resolution case.The simulated FTF depths,soil temperatures,and soil moisture values fit well with the observed data,which further demonstrates the potential application of this simulation to the land-surface process model.     

Spatial scale effect on seasonal streamflows in permafrost catchments on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

The scale issue is of central concern in hydrological processes to understand the potential upscaling or downscaling methodologies, and to develop models for scaling the dominant processes at different scales and in different environments. In this study, a typical permafrost watershed in the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau was selected. Its hydrological processes were monitored for 4 years from 2004 to 2008, measuring the effects of freezing and thawing depth of active soil layers on runoff processes. To identify the nature and cause of variation in the runoff response in different size catchments, catchments ranging from 1·07 to 112 km² were identified in the watershed. The results indicated that the variation of runoff coefficients showed a ‘V’ shape with increasing catchment size during the spring and autumn seasons, when the active soil was subjected to thawing or freezing processes. A two‐stage method was proposed to create runoff scaling models to indicate the effects of scale on runoff processes. In summer, the scaling transition model followed an exponential function for mean daily discharge, whereas the scaling model for flood flow exhibited a linear function. In autumn, the runoff process transition across multiple scales followed an exponential function with air temperature as the driving factor. These scaling models demonstrate relatively high simulation efficiency and precision, and provide a practical way for upscaling or downscaling runoff processes in a medium‐size permafrost watershed. For permafrost catchments of this scale, the results show that the synergistic effect of scale and vegetation cover is an important driving factor in the runoff response. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil organic carbon storage and soil CO_2 flux in the alpine meadow ecosystem

High-resolution sampling,measurements of organic carbon contents and 14C signatures of selected four soil profiles in the Haibei Station situated on the northeast Tibetan Plateau,and application of 14C tracing technology were conducted in an attempt to investigate the turnover times of soil organic car-bon and the soil-CO2 flux in the alpine meadow ecosystem. The results show that the organic carbon stored in the soils varies from 22.12×104 kg C hm-2 to 30.75×104 kg C hm-2 in the alpine meadow eco-systems,with an average of 26.86×104 kg C hm-2. Turnover times of organic carbon pools increase with depth from 45 a to 73 a in the surface soil horizon to hundreds of years or millennia or even longer at the deep soil horizons in the alpine meadow ecosystems. The soil-CO2 flux ranges from 103.24 g C m-2 a-1 to 254.93 gC m-2 a-1,with an average of 191.23 g C m-2 a-1. The CO2 efflux produced from microbial decomposition of organic matter varies from 73.3 g C m-2 a-1 to 181 g C m-2 a-1. More than 30% of total soil organic carbon resides in the active carbon pool and 72.8%―81.23% of total CO2 emitted from or-ganic matter decomposition results from the topsoil horizon (from 0 cm to 10 cm) for the Kobresia meadow. Responding to global warming,the storage,volume of flow and fate of the soil organic carbon in the alpine meadow ecosystem of the Tibetan Plateau will be changed,which needs further research.     

Assessment of reanalysis soil moisture products in the permafrost regions of the central of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

The long‐term and large‐scale soil moisture (SM) record is important for understanding land atmosphere interactions and their impacts on the weather, climate, and regional ecosystem. SM products are one of the parameters used in some Earth system models, but these records require evaluation before use. The water resources on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) are important to the water security of billions of people in Asia. Therefore, it is necessary to know the SM conditions on the QTP. In this study, the evaluation metrics of multilayer (0–10, 10–40, and 40–100 cm) SM in different reanalysis datasets of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts interim reanalysis (ERA‐Interim [ERA]), National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System and the Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2), and China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS) are compared with in situ observations at 5 observation sites, which represent alpine meadow, alpine swamp meadow, alpine grassy meadow, alpine desert steppe, and alpine steppe environments during the thawing season from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2013, on the QTP. The ERA SM remains constant at approximately 0.2 m³?m^?3 at all observation sites during the entire thawing season. The CLDAS and CFSv2 SM products show similar patterns with those of the in situ SM observations during the thawing season. The CLDAS SM product performs better than the CFSv2 and ERA for all vegetation types except the alpine swamp meadow. The results indicate that the soil texture and land cover types play a more important role than the precipitation to increase the biases of the CLDAS SM product on the QTP.     

Soil organic carbon storage and soil CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> flux in the alpine meadow ecosystem

High-resolution sampling, measurements of organic carbon contents and ¹⁴C signatures of selected four soil profiles in the Haibei Station situated on the northeast Tibetan Plateau, and application of ¹⁴C tracing technology were conducted in an attempt to investigate the turnover times of soil organic carbon and the soil-CO₂ flux in the alpine meadow ecosystem. The results show that the organic carbon stored in the soils varies from 22.12×10⁴ kg C hm⁻² to 30.75×10⁴ kg C hm⁻² in the alpine meadow ecosystems, with an average of 26.86×10⁴ kg C hm⁻². Turnover times of organic carbon pools increase with depth from 45 a to 73 a in the surface soil horizon to hundreds of years or millennia or even longer at the deep soil horizons in the alpine meadow ecosystems. The soil-CO₂ flux ranges from 103.24 g C m⁻² a⁻¹ to 254.93 gC m⁻² a⁻¹, with an average of 191.23 g C m⁻² a⁻¹. The CO₂ efflux produced from microbial decomposition of organic matter varies from 73.3 g C m⁻² a⁻¹ to 181 g C m⁻² a⁻¹. More than 30% of total soil organic carbon resides in the active carbon pool and 72.8%281.23% of total CO₂ emitted from organic matter decomposition results from the topsoil horizon (from 0 cm to 10 cm) for the Kobresia meadow. Responding to global warming, the storage, volume of flow and fate of the soil organic carbon in the alpine meadow ecosystem of the Tibetan Plateau will be changed, which needs further research. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40231015, 40471120 and 40473002) and the Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 06300102)     

Using stable isotopes to determine the water sources in alpine ecosystems on the east Qinghai‐Tibet plateau,China

To investigate the water circulation of eastern Qinghai‐Tibet plateau during rainy season, water samples of precipitation, throughfall, fog, soil, litter and xylem were collected for stable isotope analysis. The results showed that precipitation mainly originated as a result of the East Asian Monsoon, and the secondarily evaporated water from subalpine ecosystem was an important part in local atmospheric water cycle. The deuterium excess of rainfall in the alpine meadow was evidently higher than the precipitation in the Dengsheng stations. This suggests that a large part of precipitation in alpine meadow was derived from secondarily evaporated water and the mean contribution was 39·57%, about 3·65 mm produced shortly after rain events. Through the contrast of delta (d)‐excess value in different water samples, it could be concluded that the water in subalpine shrubland and transpiration of subalpine dark coniferous forest were the main source of secondarily evaporated water that transferred to alpine meadow. Hence, the precipitation on the east Qinghai‐Tibet plateau was doubly controlled by monsoon and local water circulation in alpine ecosystems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Permafrost‐thaw‐induced land‐cover change in the Canadian subarctic: implications for water resources

Climate warming and human disturbance in north‐western Canada have been accompanied by degradation of permafrost, which introduces considerable uncertainty to the future availability of northern freshwater resources. This study demonstrates the rate and spatial pattern of permafrost loss in a region that typifies the southern boundary of permafrost. Remote‐sensing analysis of a 1·0 km² area indicates that permafrost occupied 0·70 km² in 1947 and decreased with time to 0·43 km² by 2008. Ground‐based measurements demonstrate the importance of horizontal heat flows in thawing discontinuous permafrost, and show that such thaw produces dramatic land‐cover changes that can alter basin runoff production in this region. A major challenge to northern water resources management in the twenty‐first century therefore lies in predicting stream flows dynamically in the context of widely occurring permafrost thaw. The need for appropriate water resource planning, mitigation, and adaptation strategies is explained. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Past and projected future changes in snowpack and soil frost at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest,New Hampshire,USA

Long‐term data from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire show that air temperature has increased by about 1 °C over the last half century. The warmer climate has caused significant declines in snow depth, snow water equivalent and snow cover duration. Paradoxically, it has been suggested that warmer air temperatures may result in colder soils and more soil frost, as warming leads to a reduction in snow cover insulating soils during winter. Hubbard Brook has one of the longest records of direct field measurements of soil frost in the United States. Historical records show no long‐term trends in maximum annual frost depth, which is possibly confounded by high interannual variability and infrequency of major soil frost events. As a complement to field measurements, soil frost can be modelled reliably using knowledge of the physics of energy and water transfer. We simulated soil freezing and thawing to the year 2100 using a soil energy and water balance model driven by statistically downscaled climate change projections from three atmosphere‐ocean general circulation models under two emission scenarios. Results indicated no major changes in maximum annual frost depth and only a slight increase in number of freeze–thaw events. The most important change suggested by the model is a decline in the number of days with soil frost, stemming from a concurrent decline in the number of snow‐covered days. This shortening of the frost‐covered period has important implications for forest ecosystem processes such as tree phenology and growth, hydrological flowpaths during winter, and biogeochemical processes in soil. Published in 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The implications of permafrost thaw and land cover change on snow water equivalent accumulation,melt and runoff in discontinuous permafrost peatlands

In the discontinuous permafrost zone of the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, snow covers the ground surface for half the year. Snowmelt constitutes a primary source of moisture supply for the short growing season and strongly influences stream hydrographs. Permafrost thaw has changed the landscape by increasing the proportional coverage of permafrost-free wetlands at the expense of permafrost-cored peat plateau forests. The biophysical characteristics of each feature affect snow water equivalent (SWE) accumulation and melt rates. In headwater streams in the southern Dehcho region of the NWT, snowmelt runoff has significantly increased over the past 50 years, despite no significant change in annual SWE. At the Fort Simpson A climate station, we found that SWE measurements made by Environment and Climate Change Canada using a Nipher precipitation gauge were more accurate than the Adjusted and Homogenized Canadian Climate Dataset which was derived from snow depth measurements. Here, we: (a) provide 13 years of snow survey data to demonstrate differences in end-of-season SWE between wetlands and plateau forests; (b) provide ablation stake and radiation measurements to document differences in snow melt patterns among wetlands, plateau forests, and upland forests; and (c) evaluate the potential impact of permafrost-thaw induced wetland expansion on SWE accumulation, melt, and runoff. We found that plateaus retain significantly (p < 0.01) more SWE than wetlands. However, the differences are too small (123 mm and 111 mm, respectively) to cause any substantial change in basin SWE. During the snowmelt period in 2015, wetlands were the first feature to become snow-free in mid-April, followed by plateau forests (7 days after wetlands) and upland forests (18 days after wetlands). A transition to a higher percentage cover of wetlands may lead to more rapid snowmelt and provide a more hydrologically-connected landscape, a plausible mechanism driving the observed increase in spring freshet runoff.     

Climate change and soil erosion in a small alpine lake basin on the Loess Plateau,China

Multi‐proxy indices retrieved from sediments in Lake Chaonaqiu, an alpine lake on the western Loess Plateau (LP) of China, were used to reconstruct a precipitation history over the last ~300 years. The results correlate well with records from tree rings and historical documents in neighboring regions. We show that the lake oscillated between two states, i.e. wetter climatic conditions, which favored denser vegetation cover, and promoted weaker catchment soil erosion; and drier climatic conditions, which lead to less vegetation coverage, correlate with stronger surface soil erosion. Several intensive soil erosion events were identified in the sediment cores, and most of these occurred during decadal/multi‐decadal dry periods, and correlate well with flood events documented in historical literature. The results of this study show that soil erosion by flood events is particularly intense during dry periods, and further highlights the role of vegetation cover in the conservation of water and soil in small lake basins on the Chinese LP. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of soil water hydrological process in the permafrost active layer using stable isotopes

Here, we studied the isotope characteristics and source contributions of soil water in the permafrost active layer by collecting soil samples in July 2018 in Yangtze River basin. Soil moisture and temperature showed decreasing trends from 0–80 cm, and an increasing trend from 80–100 cm. The value of δ¹⁸O and δD first increased and then decreased in the soil profile of 0–100 cm; however, d-excess increased from 0–100 cm. δ¹⁸O values became gradually positive from the southwest to northeast of the study area, while d-excess gradually increased from southeast to northwest. The evaporation water line (EL) was δD = 7.56 δ¹⁸O + 1.50 (R² = 0.90, p < 0.01, n = 96). Due to intense solar radiation and evaporation on the Tibetan Plateau, the elevation did not impact the surface soil. The altitude effect of the soil depths of 0–20 cm was not obvious, but the other soil layers had a significant altitude effect. Soil moisture and temperature were closely related to the stable isotopic composition of soil water. The contribution of precipitation to soil water on the sunny slope was 86%, while the contribution of the shady slope was 84%. However, the contribution of ground ice to soil water on sunny slope was 14% and the shady slope was 16%. The contribution of ground ice to soil water increased with increasing altitude on the sunny slope, but the contribution of ground ice to soil water had no obvious trend on the shady slope.     

A calibration and temperature correction procedure for the water‐content reflectometer

Calibration is required for most soil moisture sensors if accurate measurements are to be obtained. This can be time consuming and costly, especially if field calibration is undertaken, but can be facilitated by a good understanding of the behaviour of the particular sensor being calibrated. We develop generalized temperature correction and soil water calibration relationships for Campbell Scientific CS615 water‐content reflectometer sensors. The temperature correction is estimated as a function of the raw sensor measurement. The calibration relationship requires one soil‐related parameter to be set. These relationships facilitate field calibration of these sensors to acceptable accuracies with only a small number of samples. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of frozen soil and snow cover on cold‐season soil water dynamics in Tokachi,Japan

Despite the potential impact of winter soil water movements in cold regions, relatively few field studies have investigated cold‐season hydrological processes that occur before spring‐onset of snowmelt infiltration. The contribution of soil water fluxes in winter to the annual water balance was evaluated over 5 years of field observations at an agricultural field in Tokachi, Hokkaido, Japan. In two of the winters, soil frost reached a maximum depth of 0·2 m (‘frozen’ winters), whereas soil frost was mostly absent during the remaining three winters (‘unfrozen’ winters). Significant infiltration of winter snowmelt water, to a depth exceeding 1·0 m, occurred during both frozen and unfrozen winters. Such infiltration ranged between 126 and 255 mm, representing 28–51% of total annual soil water fluxes. During frozen winters, a substantial quantity of water (ca 40 mm) was drawn from deeper layers into the 0–0·2 m topsoil layer when this froze. Under such conditions, the progression and regression of the freezing front, regulated by the thickness of snow cover, controlled the quantity of soil water flux below the frozen layer. During unfrozen winters, 13–62 mm of water infiltrated to a depth of 0·2 m, before the spring snowmelt. These results indicate the importance of correctly evaluating winter soil water movement in cold regions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changes in ecosystem structure,function and hydrological connectivity control water,soil and carbon losses in semi‐arid grass to woody vegetation transitions

Connectivity has recently emerged as a key concept for understanding hydrological response to vegetation change in semi‐arid environments, providing an explanatory link between abiotic and biotic, structure and function. Reduced vegetation cover following woody encroachment, generally promotes longer, more connected overland flow pathways, which has the potential to result in an accentuated rainfall‐runoff response and fluxes of both soil erosion and carbon. This paper investigates changing hydrological connectivity as an emergent property of changing ecosystem structure over two contrasting semi‐arid grass to woody vegetation transitions in New Mexico, USA. Vegetation structure is quantified to evaluate if it can be used to explain observed variations in water, sediment and carbon fluxes. Hydrological connectivity is quantified using a flow length metric, combining topographic and vegetation cover data. Results demonstrate that the two woody‐dominated sites have significantly longer mean flowpath lengths (4 · 3 m), than the grass‐dominated sites (2 · 4 m). Mean flowpath lengths illustrate a significant positive relationship with the functional response. The woody‐dominated sites lost more water, soil and carbon than their grassland counterparts. Woody sites erode more, with mean event‐based sediment yields of 1203 g, compared to 295 g from grasslands. In addition, the woody sites lost more organic carbon, with mean event yields of 39 g compared to 5 g from grassland sites. Finally, hydrological connectivity (expressed as mean flowpath length) is discussed as a meaningful measure of the interaction between structure and function and how this manifests under the extreme rainfall that occurs in semi‐arid deserts. In combination with rainfall characteristics, connectivity emerges as a useful tool to explain the impact of vegetation change on water, soil and carbon losses across semi‐arid environments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of microclimate and geomorphological factors on alpine vegetation in the Western Swiss Alps

Among the numerous environmental factors affecting plant communities in alpine ecosystems, the influence of geomorphic processes and landforms has been minimally investigated. Subjected to persistent climate warming, it is vital to understand how these factors affect vegetation properties. Here, we studied 72 vegetation plots across three sites located in the Western Swiss Alps, characterized by high geomorphological variability and plant diversity. For each plot, vascular plant species were inventoried and ground surface temperature, soil moisture, topographic variables, earth surface processes (ESPs) and landform morphodynamics were assessed. The relationships between plant communities and environmental variables were analysed using non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) and multivariate regression techniques (generalized linear model, GLM, and generalized additive model, GAM). Landform morphodynamics, growing degree days (sum of degree days above 5°C) and mean ground surface temperature were the most important explanatory variables of plant community composition. Furthermore, the regression models for species cover and species richness were significantly improved by adding a morphodynamics variable. This study provides complementary support that landform morphodynamics is a key factor, combined with growing degree days, to explain alpine plant distribution and community composition. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.