Alteration of hydrological processes and streamflow with juniper (Juniperus virginiana) encroachment in a mesic grassland catchment

To understand the effect of woody plant encroachment on hydrological processes of mesic grasslands, we quantified infiltration capacity in situ, the temporal changes in soil water storage, and streamflow of a grassland catchment and a catchment heavily encroached by juniper (Juniperus virginiana, eastern redcedar) in previously cultivated, non‐karst substrate grasslands in north‐central Oklahoma for 3 years. The initial and steady‐state infiltration rates under the juniper canopy were nearly triple to that of the grassland catchment and were intermediate in the intercanopy spaces within the encroached catchment. Soil water content and soil water storage on the encroached catchment were generally lower than on the grassland catchment, especially when preceding the seasons of peak rainfall in spring and fall. Frequency and magnitude of streamflow events were reduced in the encroached catchment. Annual runoff coefficients for the encroached catchment averaged 2.1%, in contrast to 10.6% for the grassland catchment. Annual streamflow duration ranged from 80 to 250 h for the encroached catchment compared with 600 to 800 h for the grassland catchment. Our results showed that the encroachment of juniper into previously cultivated mesic grasslands fundamentally alters catchment hydrological function. Rapid transformation of mesic grassland to a woodland state with juniper encroachment, if not confined, has the potential to drastically reduce soil water, streamflow and flow duration of ephemeral streams in the Southern Great Plains. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stochastic modelling of soil moisture dynamics in a grassland of Qilian Mountain at point scale

Stochastic modeling of soil moisture dynamics is crucial to the quantitative understanding of plant responses to water stresses,hydrological control of nutrient cycling processes,water competition among plants,and some other ecological dynamics,and thus has become a hotspot in ecohydrology at present.In this paper,we based on the continuously monitored data of soil moisture during 2002―2005 and daily precipitation date of 1992―2006,and tried to make a probabilistic analysis of soil moisture dynamics at point scale in a grassland of Qilian Mountain by integrating the stochastic model improved by Laio and the Monte Carlo method.The results show that the inter-annual variations for the soil moisture patterns at different depths are very significant,and that the coefficient of variance(CV) of surface soil moisture(20 cm) is almost continually kept at about 0.23 whether in the rich or poor rainy years.Interestingly,it has been found that the maximal CV of soil moisture has not always appeared at the surface layer.Comparison of the analytically derived soil moisture probability density function(PDF) with the statistical distribution of the observed soil moisture data suggests that the stochastic model can reasonably describe and predict the soil moisture dynamics of the grassland in Qilian Mountain at point scale.By extracting the statistical information of the historical precipitation data in 1994―2006,and inputting them into the stochastic model,we analytically derived the long-term soil moisture PDF without considering the inter-annual climate fluctuations,and then numerically derived the one when considering the inter-annual fluctuation effects in combination with a Monte-Carlo procedure.It was found that,though the peak position of the probability density distribution significantly moved towards drought when considering the disturbance forces,and its width was narrowed,accordingly its peak value was increased,no significant bimodality was observed in the soil moisture dynamics under the given intensity of random fluctuation disturbance.     

Consequences of a freshwater canal discharge on the benthic community and its habitat on an exposed sandy beach

This paper analyses the spatial and temporal effects of a freshwater discharge (Canal Andreoni) on the macroinfauna community and its habitat in a sandy beach of Uruguay. Bimonthly, we examined 17 environmental variables plus macroinfauna abundance, biomass, richness, evenness and diversity of three sites: Andreoni, at the canal mouth, Coronilla, at 1 km, and Barra, at 13 km from the mouth. Both univariate and multivariate techniques showed an increasing degree of perturbation towards the canal. This was reflected by abiotic and biotic differences between sites and by a consistent two-dimensional ordination of the samples. A clear seasonal pattern was found, specially accentuated at Coronilla, where the effects of the canal were stronger in winter and weaker in summer. Multivariate linking between macroinfauna and its habitat highlighted the role of salinity as explanatory variable of the observed trends.     

Estimating leaf area index by inversion of reflectance model for semiarid natural grasslands

The study developed an integrated reflectance model combining radiative transfer and geometric optical properties in order to inverse leaf area index (LAI) of semiarid natural grasslands. In order to better link remote sensing information with land plants, and facilitate regional and global climate change studies, the model introduced a simple but important geometrical similarity parameter related to plant crown shapes. The model revealed the influences of different plant crown shapes (such as spherical, cylindrical/cuboidal and conic crowns) on leaf/branch angle distribution frequencies, shadow ground coverage, shadowed or sunlit background fractions, canopy reflectance, and scene reflectance. The modeled reflectance data agreed with the measured ones in the three Leymus chinensis steppes with different degradation degrees, which validated the reflectance model. The lower the degradation degree was, the better the modeled data agreed with the measured data. After this reflectance model was coupled with the optimization inversion method, LAI over the entire study region was estimated once every eight days using the eight-day products of surface reflectance obtained by multi-spectral Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) during the growing seasons in 2002. The temporal and spatial patterns of inversed LAI for the steppes with different cover degrees, swamps, flood plains, and croplands agreed with the general laws and measurements very well. But for unused land cover types (sands, saline, and barren lands) and forestlands, totally accounting for about 10% of the study region, the reasonable LAI values were not derived by inversing, requiring further revising of the model or the development of a new model for them. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30500076), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB714407), and the President Foundation of Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. YZJJ200205)     

Dynamics in land-surface conditions on the Tibetan Plateau observed by Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR)

Abstract

A time series analysis of 152 VV-polarized Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) Wide Swath Mode (WSM) images collected over the central part of the Tibetan Plateau is presented for the period from April 2005 to September 2007. The signatures of a grassland and a wetland are studied to identify the impact of three land-surface states on the backscatter (σ°). The considered land-surface states are soil moisture, soil temperature and vegetation biomass represented by Système Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Comparison of the σ° time series with these land-surface states via a multivariate regression shows that the grassland σ° are well represented by the soil moisture dynamics, while the wetland σ° also has a strong correlation with soil temperature. Further, we found that the contribution of the NDVI to the explanation of the temporal σ° variability is limited for both the grassland and wetland.     

Turbulent intensity and its similarity function over an Inner Mongolian grassland during spring

Macroscopic reason for the development of turbulences in fluid is the conjunction action of velocity and temperature shears. We use the 2008 spring flux observations in the surface layer over Inner Mongolian grassland, obtain the similarity functions of turbulent intensity under different stratification stability conditions, and calculate the clear day turbulent intensity in the spring, which is then analyzed and compared with the observed values of turbulent intensity. The results show that in the Inner Mo...     

Preliminary hydrodynamic results of a field experiment on a barred beach, Truc Vert beach on October 2001

A field experiment conducted on a sandy barred beach, situated on the southern part of the French Atlantic coastline, allowed us to investigate the impact of the intertidal bar on the wave-energy dissipation on the beach face in presence of a high-energy long-incoming swell (significant wave height of about 1.7 to 3.0 m in 56 m water depth and significant wave period about 12 s). Data were collected along three parallel cross-shore transects deployed along an intertidal ridge and runnel system. Wave heights in the inner surf zone are depth-limited, consistent with previous works, and the wave-energy dissipation in the inner surf zone appears to be relatively independent of the offshore energy level. On the other hand, the presence of the bar seems to scatter the data. In models of surf-zone hydrodynamics, wave-energy dissipation is often parameterized in terms of , the ratio of the sea-swell significant wave height to the local mean water depth. The observed values of are not constant along a cross-shore transect, and increase onshore. Furthermore, the observed values observed onshore the intertidal bar are higher than those observed outside the influence of the intertidal bar, and this cannot be fully explained by the different local beach slope.Responsible Editor: Iris Grabemann     

Identification of rural land management signals in runoff response

Rural land management signals in catchment‐scale runoff have proven difficult to identify in general. The Pontbren experimental catchment in upland Wales, UK, provides a new data set with which to address this challenge. This data set includes more than 4 years of data from six tipping bucket rainfall gauges and eight stream flow gauges representing different land management regimes at different scales. Data‐based mechanistic rainfall–runoff models were fitted to this data set using the CAPTAIN toolbox. The spatial and temporal variabilities of model parameters were identified and interpreted where possible. The analysis highlighted a dependency between the modelled residence time and the presence of agriculturally improved grassland, which produced a flashier response than grassland in a more natural condition. Another factor found to strongly affect the spatial variability of runoff response was the presence of lakes, while catchment area had a less pronounced effect, and the influence of trees, steepness and soil type could not be identified. Some time variability of response was observed but this was not consistent across the catchment and could not easily be interpreted. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

沙地渗灌系统的自动监测与控制

通过沙地渗灌系统的应用实践以及与沟灌、漫灌进行的比较研究,着重介绍了其对水分实行自动监测与控制的功能;分析了其可向植物根群区直接供给水分和养分,减少水分蒸发,保持沙地良好水分状态的优越性。     

丛枝菌根真菌与沙棘对露天矿排土场的联合改良效应

我国东部草原露天矿区土壤瘠薄,草场退化严重,生态恢复难度大。针对露天矿排土场的特殊环境,研究丛枝菌根真菌与沙棘的共生状况以及菌根对沙棘根系发育的影响和对排土场土壤的改良效应。试验发现,接菌组(+M)沙棘的株高和冠幅比对照组处理(CK)分别提高了20%和21%,+M的根长和根体积分别为CK的1.46倍和1.97倍;+M中沙棘根际土中的易提取球囊霉素含量为3.22 mg/g,显著高于CK的2.16 mg/g;+M的磷酸酶活性是CK的1.76倍,速效磷含量也有相似变化规律。研究结果表明,利用微生物促进露天矿排土场的土壤改良及生态恢复具有较强的可行性,对矿区生态系统的恢复具有重要意义。