Year‐Round Transpiration Dynamics Linked With Deep Soil Moisture in a Warm Desert Shrubland
Name:
Szutu_et_al-2019-Water_Resourc ...
Size:
2.005Mb
Format:
PDF
Description:
Final Published Version
Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Sch Nat Resources & EnvironmIssue Date
2019-07-12
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNIONCitation
Szutu, D. J., & Papuga, S. A. (2019). Year‐round transpiration dynamics linked with deep soil moisture in a warm desert shrubland. Water Resources Research, 55, 5679–5695. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023990Journal
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCHRights
Copyright © 2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Ecohydrological processes in semiarid shrublands and other dryland ecosystems are sensitive to discrete pulses of precipitation. Anticipated changes in the frequency and magnitude of precipitation events are expected to impact the spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture in these drylands, thereby impacting their ecohydrological processes. Recent field studies have shown that in dryland ecosystems, transpiration dynamics and plant productivity are largely a function of deep soil moisture available after large precipitation events, regardless of where the majority of plant roots occur. However, the strength of this relationship and how and why it varies throughout the year remains unclear. We present eddy covariance, soil moisture, and sap flow measurements taken over an 18-month period in conjunction with an analysis of biweekly precipitation, shallow soil, deep soil, and stem stable water isotope samples from a creosotebush-dominated shrubland ecosystem at the Santa Rita Experimental Range in southern Arizona. Within the context of a hydrologically defined two-layer conceptual framework, our results support that transpiration is associated with the availability of deep soil moisture and that the source of this moisture varies seasonally. Therefore, changes in precipitation pulses that alter the timing and magnitude of the availability of deep soil moisture are expected to have major consequences for dryland ecosystems. Our findings offer insights that can improve the representation of drylands within regional and global models of land surface atmosphere exchange and their linkages to the hydrologic cycle.Note
6 month embargo; published online: 12 July 2019ISSN
0043-1397Sponsors
NSF CAREER award [1755722, EAR-1255013]ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1029/2018wr023990