A large proportion of rainfall in dryland ecosystems is intercepted by plant foliage and is generally assumed to evaporate to the atmosphere or drip onto the soil surface without being absorbed. We demonstrate foliar absorption of intercepted rainfall in a widely distributed, continental dryland, woody-plant genus: Juniperus. We observed substantial improvement in plant water status, exceeding ...

Detection of microbial enzymes in natural environments is important to understand biochemical activities and to verify the biotechnological potential of the microorganisms. In the present report, 346 isolates from soil, water, and plants were screened for enzyme production (caseinase, gelatinase, amylase, carboxymethyl cellulase, and esterase). Our results showed that 89.6% of isolates produced...

Tree species response to climate change-induced shifts in the hydrological cycle depends on many physiological traits, particularly variation in water relations characteristics. We evaluated differences in shoot water potential, vulnerability of branches to reductions in hydraulic conductivity, and water source use between Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm. (lodgepole pine) a...

Conventional water resources of good quality are scarce especially in arid and semiarid regions. The salinization of soils and water places is a substantial constraint of crop productivity. The mixed application of fresh water along with seawater is becoming a common practice by the farmers near sea sides in the developing countries. Seawaters contain beneficial nutrients that can be useful for...

Apart from improving plant and soil water status during drought, it has been suggested that hydraulic lift (HL) could enhance plant nutrient capture through the flow of mineral nutrients directly from the soil to plant roots, or by maintaining the functioning of mycorrhizal fungi. We evaluated the extent to which the diel cycle of water availability created by HL covaries with the efflux of HL ...

[1] Traditionally, analytical solutions for heat transport in soils have been used in combination with heat pulse probe (HPP) measurements to estimate soil thermal properties. Although the analytical method has resulted in accurate estimation of soil thermal properties, we suggest that parameter estimation using inverse modeling (IM) provides new and unique opportunities for soil thermal charac...

Soil water balance has response to climate change and evaluation of soil water change is one of the most important items of climate change impact assessment. GCM outputs under three scenarios were statistically downscaled during 2010~2039 to simulate the potential change of soil water balance in Wangdonggou watershed on the Loess Plateau with WEPP model. GCM predicted a 1.8 to 17.5% increase in...

Developing correlations between various soil parameters are considered the major challenge to diminish time and cost associated with field measurements. Soil hydraulic and physical properties were extensively characterized using tension disc infiltrometer and soil sampling in a silty clay agricultural field in Kalaat El-Andalous, Tunisia. Tension disc infiltrometer experiments were conducted at...

Extreme rainfall events are the major driver of shallow landslide occurrences in mountainous and steep terrain regions around the world. Subsurface hydrology has a dominant role on the initiation of rainfall-induced shallow landslides, since changes in the soil water content affect significantly the soil shear strength. Rainfall infiltration produces an increase of soil water potential, which i...