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Populus euphratica, Tamarix ramosissima, and Sophora alopecuroides are, respectively, typical arboreal, shrubby, and herbaceous species in oases of arid regions. It is important to study the difference in metabolic characteristics of the rhizosphere fungal community of these plant species and their relationships with soil factors for the preservation of delicate arid oasis ecosystems with future environmental changes. In this study, we, respectively, collected 18 rhizosphere soil samples of P. euphratica, T. ramosissima, and S. alopecuroides to explore the difference in rhizosphere fungal metabolic characteristics of different plant life forms and their underlying driving factors. The results showed that (1) soil physicochemical properties (including soil water content, pH, etc.) were significantly different among different plant species (p < 0.05). (2) Rhizosphere fungal metabolic characteristics were significantly different between S. alopecuroides and T. ramosissima (ANOSIM, p < 0.05), which was mainly caused by the different utilization of carboxylic carbon. (3) The RDA showed that the main driving factors of the variations in rhizosphere fungal metabolic characteristics were different among different plant species. The main explanatory variables of the variations in the metabolic characteristics of the rhizosphere fungal community were carbon to nitrogen ratio (23%) and available potassium (17.4%) for P. euphratica, while soil organic carbon (23.1%), pH (8.6%), and total nitrogen (8.2%) for T. ramosissima, and soil clay content (36.6%) and soil organic carbon (12.6%) for S. alopecuroides. In conclusion, the variations in rhizosphere fungal metabolic characteristics in arid oases are dominantly affected by soil factors rather than plant life forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is proposed to estimate the threshold wind speed for dust emissions as a function of soil moisture in arid regions. This method, which is applicable at the local scale, employs a model of the surface heat budget to estimate the spatial distribution of thermal inertia-derived soil moisture (TISM) and an analytical footprint model to estimate dust source areas. It incorporates readily available satellite and meteorological data. The soil moisture inside the dust source area is estimated for individual dust phenomena observed at a synoptic surface observation site, and then, together with the corresponding observed wind speed, the threshold wind speed as a function of soil moisture is found by employing the parametrization of Fécan et al. (Ann Geophys 17:149–157, 1999). This relationship represents the local dust climatology at the observation site, although the data include some outliers. The results show that readily available data for the natural environment can be used, as an alternative to wind-tunnel data, with the parametrization used to derive the threshold wind-speed relation. The derived relation indicates the TISM and wind speed at which the probability of a dust phenomenon is 10%. Moreover, the threshold wind-speed results are not sensitive to the principal footprint-model parameters. The TISM standard error of approximately 0.04 m3 m−3 could significantly affect the results under dry and weak-wind conditions, but this sensitivity can be avoided if the soil clay content or the soil type at the observation point is known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To investigate the role of clay in limiting the development of woody biomass in drylands. Location Australia. Methods Spatial data representing woody biomass, soil clay content and climate for the Australian continent were interpreted to explore the relationship between a moisture index and woody biomass on clay and non-clay substrates. Moisture and soil water potential were investigated through time for clay and sand plains. Sub-soil clay and other soil characteristics were compared between areas with and without high tree mortality after drought. Results The substantially lower woody biomass on clay soils than non-clay soils in the drylands of the Australian continent verifies the inverse texture effect. A clay floodplain consistently held more water than an adjacent sandplain, but soil moisture in the clay was effectively inaccessible to plants for much longer periods because of more negative values of water potential in the clay soil. Small increases in sub-soil clay were associated with high tree mortality. Main conclusions Our findings suggest that the 'inverse texture effect', which describes the negative association of woody biomass with soil clay content in drylands, may mostly relate to the moisture-retentive properties of clay rather than being caused by reduced infiltration and enhanced evaporation from clay-rich soils. Our evidence suggests that clay soils constrain woodiness in drylands by exacerbating water stress, and confirm the fundamental role of aridity in determining woody biomass and the global distribution of grassland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of plant‐available soil water (PASW) is essential to quantify transpiration fluxes, the onset of heatwaves, irrigation water management, land‐use decisions, vegetation ecology, and land surface memory in climate models. PASW is the amount of stored water available for plant use. It is broadly defined as the difference between soil water content at field capacity (FC) and wilting point (WP) in the root zone. The limiting states of FC and WP are linked to gravitational drainage and plant physiology and are often deduced from soil water characteristics at prescribed matric potentials (−3.3 and −150 m for FC and WP, respectively). Evidence suggests that static definition of FC at a constant matric potential ignores dynamic effects on FC attainment affected by soil and climate. Here, we revise the definition of PASW by considering (a) soil‐specific dynamic effects and (b) local climate effects of evaporation and rainfall frequency on PASW. The new global PASW maps benefit from state‐of‐the‐art soil maps, water characteristic parameterization, and incorporation of dynamic definition of FC. For completeness we provide static and dynamic PASW estimates. Globally, ice‐free soils store up to 19,941 km3 of water in the top 1 m (representing 18% of annual terrestrial precipitation). Adjusted for local climatic conditions, global PASW storage rarely exceeds 14,853 km3 per year highlighting the need for multiple refilling of soil profiles. Differences between potential and climatic PASW are manifested primarily in arid regions (where soil profiles are rarely filled to capacity) whereas in humid regions differences in PASW storage are minor. Plain Language Summary: Plant‐available soil water (PASW) is defined as the amount of water held in soil that can be used by plants. It is conventionally estimated as the difference between field capacity (FC) and wilting point (WP), which depend on soil type and plant physiology. Water contents at FC and WP are usually deduced at fixed matric potentials irrespective of soil types (−3.3 and −150 m for FC and WP, respectively). However, FC is affected by various factors such as soil texture, soil structure, and clay type that affect the dynamics of FC attainment and put into question the use of a static definition based on constant matric potentials. Therefore, we used the approach developed by Assouline and Or (2014, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014wr015475) that considers a dynamic definition of FC based on soil‐specific matric potential values beyond which the soil water continuity is substantially reduced or disrupted. The potential PASW was calculated by subtracting the WP from the dynamic FC. The novelty of this study is to incorporate the effect of climate such as evaporative water loss to introduce a climatic PASW. Our results suggest that PASW in arid regions are overestimated when climatic effects are ignored. Key Points: Global maps of field capacity (FC) are compared based on dynamic and static definitionsLocal climate effects of evaporation and rainfall frequency via dynamic FC affect climatic plant‐available soil water (PASW)Incorporating climatic effects mainly reduces PASW in arid regions compared to humid climates [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological interactions between vegetation, soil, and topography are complex, and heterogeneous in semi‐arid landscapes. This along with data scarcity poses challenges for large‐scale modeling of vegetation‐water interactions. Here, we exploit metrics derived from daily Meteosat data over Africa at ca. 5 km spatial resolution for ecohydrological analysis. Their spatial patterns are based on Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) time series and emphasize limiting conditions of the seasonal wet to dry transition: the minimum and maximum FVC of temporal record, the FVC decay rate and the FVC integral over the decay period. We investigate the relevance of these metrics for large scale ecohydrological studies by assessing their co‐variation with soil moisture, and with topographic, soil, and vegetation factors. Consistent with our initial hypothesis, FVC minimum and maximum increase with soil moisture, while the FVC integral and decay rate peak at intermediate soil moisture. We find evidence for the relevance of topographic moisture variations in arid regions, which, counter‐intuitively, is detectable in the maximum but not in the minimum FVC. We find no clear evidence for wide‐spread occurrence of the "inverse texture effect" on FVC. The FVC integral over the decay period correlates with independent data sets of plant water storage capacity or rooting depth while correlations increase with aridity. In arid regions, the FVC decay rate decreases with canopy height and tree cover fraction as expected for ecosystems with a more conservative water‐use strategy. Thus, our observation‐based products have large potential for better understanding complex vegetation‐water interactions from regional to continental scales. Plain Language Summary: Local‐scale processes controlling vegetation dynamics under water limitation are highly uncertain at large scales, despite their importance on global carbon and water cycles. This is particularly pronounced in Africa due to the scarcity of ground measurements despite the importance of African ecosystems due to their contribution to global cycles and their services to population. In order to overcome this problem, we developed a set of metrics based on the fractional vegetation cover observed from the European geostationary satellite. The metrics, derived from the daily fractional vegetation cover data help diagnose ecohydrological processes thanks to their high spatiotemporal resolution. Initial analyses show consistent continental gradients in the metrics together with strong local variations and corroboration with different data sets from independent sources, in agreement with the literature. Key Points: We derive ecohydrological metrics from seasonal decays in geostationary satellite data of vegetation cover over Africa at 5 km resolutionThe metrics covary with soil moisture, contain information on water sources apart from precipitation and vegetation access by deep rootingLand surface models can benefit from these metrics by tailored evaluation, calibration, and parameterization of ecohydrological processes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soils that contain rock fragments (particles > 2 mm in diameter) are distributed all over the world. The presence of these small rock fragments can have a great impact on soil water retention properties, as well as on the soil-water infiltration and vegetation restoration in semi-arid regions. To quantitatively describe the transport of water in stony soils, repacked soil cores were used to determine the infiltration rates for different rock fragment contents (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) and rock fragment sizes (2-5, 5-8, 8-11, and 2-11 mm). The results showed that both the content and size of the rock fragments and their interaction significantly affected the infiltration process. The infiltration rates over time and the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) decreased with an increasing rock fragment content to an observed minimum value for a 40% rock fragment content. The soil-water infiltration processes were accurately described by the Kostiakov model. The measured and calculated Ks values decreased with an increasing rock fragment content, which was in accordance with the published data and in accordance with the Ks obtained by five empirical methods. The variations in the measured Ks were likely due to the variations in the soil properties caused by the soil sample repacking. The results of this study may improve the understanding of the effects of the rock fragment content and size on the infiltration processes in arid and semi-arid desert steppes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrient loss from litter plays an essential role in carbon and nutrient cycling in nutrient-constrained environments. However, the decomposition and nutrient dynamics of nutrient-rich mistletoe litter remains unknown in semi-arid savanna where productivity is nutrient limited. We studied the decomposition and nutrient dynamics (nitrogen: N, phosphorous; P, carbon: C) of litter of three mistletoe species, E rianthemum ngamicum, P licosepalus kalachariensis, and V iscum verrucosum and N-fixing A cacia karroo using the litter-bag method in a semi-arid savanna, southwest Zimbabwe. The temporal dynamics of the soil moisture content, microbial populations, and termite activity during decomposition were also assessed. Decay rates were slower for A. karroo litter ( k = 0.63), but faster for the high quality mistletoe litters (mean k-value = 0.79), which supports the premise that mistletoes can substantially influence nutrient availability to other plants. Nitrogen loss was between 1.3 and 3 times greater in E. ngamicum litter than in the other species. The litter of the mistletoes also lost C and P faster than A. karroo litter. However, soil moisture content and bacterial and fungal colony numbers changed in an opposite direction to changes in the decomposition rate. Additionally, there was little evidence of termite activity during the decay of all the species litters. This suggests that other factors such as photodegradation could be important in litter decomposition in semi-arid savanna. In conclusion, the higher rate of decay and nutrient release of mistletoe than A. karroo litter indicate that mistletoes play an important role in carbon and nutrient fluxes in semi-arid savanna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of soil moisture dynamics in the unsaturated soil zone provides valuable information on the temporal and spatial variability of groundwater recharge. This is especially true for the Mediterranean region, where a substantial fraction of long-term groundwater recharge is expected to occur during high magnitude precipitation events of above-average wet winters. To elucidate process understanding of infiltration processes during these extreme events, a monitoring network of precipitation gauges, meteorological stations, and soil moisture plots was installed in an area with a steep climatic gradient in the Jordan Valley region. In three soil moisture plots, Hydrus-1D was used to simulate water movement in the unsaturated soil zone with soil hydraulic parameters estimated by the Shuffled Complex Evolution Metropolis algorithm. To generalize our results, we modified soil depth and rainfall input to simulate the effect of the pronounced climatic gradient and soil depth variability on percolation fluxes and applied the calibrated model to a time series with 62 years of meteorological data. Soil moisture measurements showed a pronounced seasonality and suggested rapid infiltration during heavy rainstorms. Hydrus- 1D successfully simulated short and long-term soil moisture patterns, with the majority of simulated deep percolation occurring during a few intensive rainfall events. Temperature drops in a nearby groundwater well were observed synchronously with simulated percolation pulses, indicating rapid groundwater recharge mechanisms. The 62-year model run yielded annual percolation fluxes of up to 66 % of precipitation depths during wet years and of 0 % during dry years. Furthermore, a dependence of recharge on the temporal rainfall distribution could be shown. Strong correlations between depth of recharge and soil depth were also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threshold levels of soil moisture and salinity in the plant root zone can guide crop planting and farming practices by providing a baseline for adjusting irrigation and modifying soil salinity. This study describes a method of soil water and salinity control based on an optimized model for growing cotton in an arid area. Experiments were conducted in Akesu Irrigation District, southern Xinjiang, northwest China, to provide data for cotton yield and soil water content and salinity in the root zone at different growth stages. The sensitivity of cotton to soil water content and salinity was predicted for different growth periods using a modified Jensen model. An optimization model with 480 boundary conditions was created, with the objective of maximizing yield, to obtain the dynamically varying water and salt threshold levels in the root zone for scenarios that included three initial soil moisture content values (W0), eight irrigation quantities (M), five initial soil salt content values (S0), and four irrigation water salinity levels (K). Results showed that the flowering–boll stage is the crucial period for cotton yield, and the threshold levels of soil water content and salinity in the cotton root zone varied with the boundary conditions. The scenario chosen for the research area in this study was W0 = 0.85θfc (θfc is field capacity), S0 = 4 g kg−1, M = 400 mm, K = 0 g L−1. The predicted threshold levels of soil water for different growth stages (seedling, bud, flowering–boll, and boll-opening) were respectively 0.75–0.85θfc, 0.65–0.75θfc, 0.56–0.65θfc, and 0.45–0.56θfc. Corresponding threshold levels of salt were 4–4.16, 4.16–4.39, 4.39–4.64, and 4.64–4.97 g kg−1 when no action was taken to remove salt from the root zone. This study provides an innovation method for the determination of dynamically varying soil water content and salt thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]