Investigation of plant water use in the Great Basin, NV

Investigation of Plant Water Use in the Great Basin, NV by Benjamin Conrad Dr. Dale Devitt, Examination Committee Chair Professor of Soil and Water Science University of Nevada, Las Vegas Global climate change in addition to a growing population can have a strong impact on our natural resources. In particular, cities in the semi-arid and arid southwestern US are currently faced with the challenge of providing sustainable fresh water to a growing population. In Las Vegas, dwindling water levels in Lake Mead have forced water managers to seek water resources from Spring Valley and Snake Valley, NV, which are located 402 km north of the city. The goals of this research were to investigate the water use of shrubs located in these valleys by using a large aperture scintillometer (LAS) to scale up energy balance components (needed to close a water balance) from the canopy level and to determine the potential impacts of altering the water source available to these native vegetation communities. Due to proposed groundwater pumping to Las Vegas, we focused mainly on the facultative phreatophytic shrub Sarcobatus vermiculatus (greasewood). Phreatophytic shrubs have a large tap root that accesses ground water within a phreatophytic zone directly above the water table, and they are characterized by being either obligate (living almost entirely off of