Hydrology of a Water‐Limited Forest under Climate Change Scenarios: The Case of the Caatinga Biome, Brazil
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.2. Climatic Data Generator
2.3. Climate Change Scenario
2.4 Modeling
3. Results
3.1. Generated Climatic Data
3.2. Hydrological Simulations
4. Discussion
4.1. General Hydrological Features
4.2. Final Remarks
5. Conclusions
- Based on 95% levels of confidence, in order to obtain a positive year-based water budget, annual rainfall should be higher than 443 mm.
- Compared to simulations with the current climate, climate change would lead to an increase of actual transpiration of 36%, and a decrease of 16% and 34% for soil evaporation and interception losses, respectively, whereas the amount of precipitation returned to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration was predicted to reach, on average, 98%.
- The greatest change in water balance components under the simulated climate change was predicted for deep drainage, accounting only for 2% of the annual rainfall, followed by a soil-water reduction of 38%.
- Regarding soil water availability, the soil-plant-atmosphere fluxes seem to be controlled by the top layer (0.0–0.2 m), which provides, on average, 80% of the total transpiration, suggesting that the Caatinga biome may become completely soil-water pulse dominated under scenarios of reduced water availability.
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
References
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General Parameterization | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Parameter | Value | Source | ||
hroot (m) | −160 | [10] | ||
Rood radius (m) | 4.3 × 10−4 | [10] | ||
Canopy albedo (–) | 0.16 | [10] | ||
Soil albedo (–) | 0.24 | [10] | ||
LAI range (–) | 0.04–1.3 | According to Equations (3) and (4) | ||
k (–) | 0.75 | [25] | ||
Kc range (–) | 0.98–1.1 | According to Equation (2) | ||
Ref (m) | 0.78 | [11] | ||
Soil-depth dependent parameterization | ||||
Parameter | Soil-layer thickness (m) | |||
0.0–0.2 | 0.2–0.4 | 0.4–0.6 | 0.6–0.8 | |
θr (m3·m−3) | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
θs (m3·m−3) | 0.418 | 0.440 | 0.433 | 0.415 |
α·(m−1) | 6.8 | 22.5 | 24.9 | 13.9 |
n (–) | 1.21 | 1.86 | 1.162 | 1.170 |
Ks (m·day−1) | 2.22 | 2.5 | 0.36 | 0.16 |
RLD (m·m−3) | 3700 | 2800 | 2000 | 1600 |
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Pinheiro, E.A.R.; Van Lier, Q.D.J.; Bezerra, A.H.F. Hydrology of a Water‐Limited Forest under Climate Change Scenarios: The Case of the Caatinga Biome, Brazil. Forests 2017, 8, 62. https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030062
Pinheiro EAR, Van Lier QDJ, Bezerra AHF. Hydrology of a Water‐Limited Forest under Climate Change Scenarios: The Case of the Caatinga Biome, Brazil. Forests. 2017; 8(3):62. https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030062
Chicago/Turabian StylePinheiro, Everton Alves Rodrigues, Quirijn De Jong Van Lier, and Andre Herman Freire Bezerra. 2017. "Hydrology of a Water‐Limited Forest under Climate Change Scenarios: The Case of the Caatinga Biome, Brazil" Forests 8, no. 3: 62. https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030062