Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Huang, Yanan
• Li, Bingbing
• Biswas, Asim
• Li, Zhi

Titel

Factors dominating the horizontal and vertical variability of soil water vary with climate and plant type in loess deposits

Ist Teil von

• The Science of the total environment, 2022-03, Vol.811, p.152172-152172, Article 152172

Ort / Verlag

Netherlands: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Identifying the variability and predominant factors affecting soil water (SW) is essential in regions with thick vadose zones and deep-rooted plants. This information is needed to clarify the balance between water availability and plant water demand. We collected 9263 soil samples from 128 profiles of 7–25 m deep soil under different climates (arid, semiarid and subhumid), soil textures and plant types (shallow or deep roots) in China's Loess Plateau. The factors dominating the horizontal and vertical variability of SW were identified using a multimodel inference approach and stepwise regression analysis. Horizontally, the mean water content and storage increased while the water deficits decreased from the northwest to the southeast. Vertically, mean water content and storage are highest in the relatively stable layer, followed by rapidly changing layers and active layers. Plant age and soil clay content dominate the horizontally varied SW, while plant age and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dominate the vertical variability of SW. However, the dominant factors appeared to differ with climate and plant type. It was determined that for climate, soil clay content and plant age in arid regions, precipitation and plant age in semiarid regions, NDVI and plant age in subhumid regions were important factors. For plants, the dominant factors are NDVI and precipitation under shallow-rooted plants; however, NDVI and plant age were dominant under deep-rooted plants. The dominance of plant age highlighted the impact of vegetation patterns on SW, especially for deep-rooted plants, which should be taken into account when managing water resources and ecosystem rehabilitation in degraded regions. [Display omitted] •Soil water variability was explored with a large dataset under varying environment.•Soil water varies horizontally and vertically with changing environmental factors.•Plant age and soil clay content dominate horizontal variability of soil water.•Plant age and NDVI dominate vertical variability of soil water.•Dominance of vegetation highlight impacts of deep-rooted plants.