Journal Article FZJ-2021-02828

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png
Salix psammophila afforestations can cause a decline of the water table, prevent groundwater recharge and reduce effective infiltration

 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

2021
Elsevier Science Amsterdam [u.a.]

The science of the total environment 780, 146336 - () [10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146336]

This record in other databases:    

Please use a persistent id in citations:   doi:

Abstract: Afforestation can reduce desertification and soil erosion. However, the hydrologic implications of afforestation are not well investigated, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. China has the largest area of afforestation in the world, with one-third of the world's total plantation forests. How the shrubs affect evapotranspiration, soil moisture dynamics, and groundwater recharge remains unclear. We designed two pairs of lysimeters, one being 1.2 m deep and the other one 4.2 m deep. Each pair consists of one lysimeter with bare soil, while on the other one a shrub is planted. The different water table depths were implemented to understand how depth to groundwater affects soil moisture and water table dynamics under different hydrological conditions. Soil moisture, water table depth, sap flow, and rainfall were measured concurrently. Our study confirms that for the current meteorological conditions in the Ordos plateau recharge is reduced or even prohibited through the large-scale plantation Salix psammophila. Shrubs also raise the threshold of precipitation required to increase soil moisture of the surface ground. For the conditions we analyzed, a minimum of 6 mm of precipitation was required for infiltration processes to commence. In addition to the hydrological analysis, the density of root distribution is assessed outside of the lysimeters for different water table depths. The results suggest that the root-density distribution is strongly affected by water table depth. Our results have important implications for the determination of the optimal shrub-density in future plantations, as well as for the conceptualization of plant roots in upcoming numerical models.

Classification:

Contributing Institute(s):
  1. Agrosphäre (IBG-3)
Research Program(s):
  1. 2173 - Agro-biogeosystems: controls, feedbacks and impact (POF4-217) (POF4-217)

Appears in the scientific report 2021
Database coverage:
Medline ; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ; Embargoed OpenAccess ; BIOSIS Previews ; Biological Abstracts ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences ; Ebsco Academic Search ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF >= 5 ; JCR ; NationallizenzNationallizenz ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection
Click to display QR Code for this record

The record appears in these collections:
Document types > Articles > Journal Article
Institute Collections > IBG > IBG-3
Workflow collections > Public records
Publications database
Open Access

 Record created 2021-07-03, last modified 2021-08-10


Published on 2021-03-11. Available in OpenAccess from 2023-03-11.:
Download fulltext PDF
External link:
Download fulltextFulltext by OpenAccess repository
Rate this document:

Rate this document:
1
2
3
 
(Not yet reviewed)