Browsing by Subject "Water Resources"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Changes in evapotranspiration and phenology as consequences of shrub removal in dry forests of central Argentina
    (Ecohydrology, 2015-10-01) Marchesini, VA; Fernández, RJ; Reynolds, JF; Sobrino, JA; Di Bella, CM
    More than half of the dry woodlands (forests and shrublands) of the world are in South America, mainly in Brazil and Argentina, where in the last years intense land use changes have occurred. This study evaluated how the transition from woody-dominated to grass-dominated system affected key ecohydrological variables and biophysical processes over 20000ha of dry forest in central Argentina. We used a simplified surface energy balance model together with moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer-normalized difference vegetation index data to analyse changes in above primary productivity, phenology, actual evapotranspiration, albedo and land surface temperature for four complete growing seasons (2004-2009). The removal of woody vegetation decreased aboveground primary productivity by 15-21%, with an effect that lasted at least 4years, shortened the growing season between 1 and 3months and reduced evapotranspiration by as much as 30%. Albedo and land surface temperature increased significantly after the woody to grassland conversion. Our findings highlight the role of woody vegetation in regulating water dynamics and ecosystem phenology and show how changes in vegetative cover can influence regional climatic change. © 2015 John Wiley
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    Hydro-geomorphic perturbations on the soil-atmosphere CO2exchange: How (un)certain are our balances?
    (Water Resources Research, 2017-02) Dialynas, Yannis G; Bras, Rafael L; deB. Richter, Daniel
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    Suspended Sediment Mineralogy and the Nature of Suspended Sediment Particles in Stormflow of the Southern Piedmont of the USA
    (Water Resources Research, 2019-01-01) River, M; Richardson, CJ
    The majority of annual sediment flux is transported during storm events in many watersheds across the world. Using X-ray diffraction, we analyzed the mineralogy of grab samples of suspended sediment during different stages of storm hydrographs in the Southern Piedmont. Mineralogy of suspended sediment changes drastically from quartz-dominated during the rising limb to clay dominated during the late falling limb/baseflow. Changes in mineralogy can shed insight into turbidity relationships, suspended sediment sources, energy versus supply-limited sediment transport, and other suspended sediment parameters such as anion exchange capacity and trace element chemistry. An unexpected key finding, confirmed by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy, is that both kaolinite and quartz are primarily transported as discrete crystalline minerals of different size classes in our watersheds; this contrasts with existing scientific literature stating that in most fluvial systems suspended sediment is transported primarily as composite particles composed of a heterogeneous mix of all particle sizes. Our findings also support existing literature that turbidity can be a good proxy for elements such as P, which are preferentially adsorbed onto iron oxide coatings thus in situ turbidity probes have great potential to provide relatively inexpensive estimates of P flux when calibrated for specific watersheds.