Long-Term Water Balance in a Semiarid Shrubland

~esigning a Long-term Nitrogen Balance Experiment

The answers to many agronomic questions can only be obtained from long-term experiments in which the evolution of responses to experimental treatments can be observed for several years. In this paper, we describe our experience in designing and running an experiment set up to study changes in the nitrogen balance associated with a continual rotation of summer and winter crops grown on a Tokomar...

Revisiting the parameterization of potential evaporation as a driver of long-term water balance trends

[ 1 ] We examine the effects of two different parameterizations of potential evaporation on long-term trends in soil moisture, evaporative flux and runoff simulated by the water balance model underlying the Palmer Drought Severity Index. The first, traditional parameterization is based on air temperature alone. The second parameterization is derived from observations of evaporation from class-A...

Long-term water balance and conceptual model of a semi-arid mountainous catchment

Temporal and spatial variation of episodic wind erosion in unburned and burned semiarid shrubland.

Redistribution of soil, nutrients, and contaminants is often driven by wind erosion in semiarid shrublands. Wind erosion depends on wind velocity (particularly during episodic, high-velocity winds) and on vegetation, which is generally sparse and spatially heterogeneous in semiarid ecosystems. Further, the vegetation cover can be rapidly and greatly altered due to disturbances, particularly fir...

Poplar plantation has the potential to alter the water balance in semiarid Inner Mongolia.

Poplar plantation is the most dominant broadleaf forest type in northern China. Since the mid-1990s plantation was intensified to combat desertification along China's northwestern border, i.e., within Inner Mongolia (IM). This evoked much concern regarding the ecological and environmental effects on areas that naturally grow grass or shrub vegetation. To highlight potential consequences of larg...