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IJERPH
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Interactions between Soil Moisture and Vegetation in Fragile Ecosystems
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Interactions between Soil Moisture and Vegetation in Fragile Ecosystems

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2023) | Viewed by 9109

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lei Jiao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Geographical Sciences and Tourism, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
Interests: ecohydrology; evapotranspiration; vegetation restoration; soil water; water-limited areas
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xiaoyang Han

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: relationship between vegetation pattern and soil water and carbon; soil water transport and simulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil moisture is an essential part of the water cycle, which is the main water source for plants, playing a key role in controlling vegetation growth, development, and distribution. Conversely, vegetation type, structure, pattern, and the growing process affect the temporal–spatial dynamics of soil water at varied scales. The interactions and feedback mechanisms between vegetation and soil moisture are one of the most key scientific questions in ecohydrology. During recent decades, the effects of ecosystem structure and distribution on soil water availability, the influence of soil water stress on the ecosystem, and the interactive mechanism between ecosystem and soil water in water-limited areas have been widely studied. In fragile ecosystems, soil moisture–vegetation interactions are the basis for vegetation restoration and water resource management. However, the interactions between soil moisture and vegetation will become more uncertain in a changing climate and under extensive anthropogenic activity. In addition, our understanding of the interactions integrated at multispatial scales (i.e., plant, community, ecosystem, region) remains limited.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on new evidence of the interactions between soil moisture and vegetation in fragile ecosystems affected by climate change and anthropogenic activity. We invite authors to submit original field experiment, investigation, and modeling studies, as well as review papers to this Special Issue. Papers on remote sensing on this topic are also welcome.

Dr. Lei Jiao
Dr. Xiaoyang Han
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • soil moisture dynamics
  • ecosystem restoration
  • plant water use
  • plant–soil water interaction
  • coupling mechanism
  • soil moisture modelling
  • soil water vegetation carrying capacity
  • soil desiccation
  • vegetation degradation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3703 KiB  
Article
Effect of Shrub Components on Soil Water and Its Response to Precipitation at Different Time Scales in the Loess Plateau
by Jianbo Liu, Guangyao Gao and Bing Zhang
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 4722; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064722 - 7 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1650
Abstract
Water shortages have become the major limiting factor for ecological protection and sustainable development in the Loess Plateau. Few studies have focused on the effects of different plant components on soil water and its response to precipitation at different time scales. This study [...] Read more.
Water shortages have become the major limiting factor for ecological protection and sustainable development in the Loess Plateau. Few studies have focused on the effects of different plant components on soil water and its response to precipitation at different time scales. This study conducted an observation of shrub plants with three treatments (natural condition (NC), canopy + roots after removing the litter (CR), and only roots (OR)) to monitor the dynamics of soil water during the rainy season of an extreme drought year in 2015. The results showed that the soil moisture content (SMC) and soil water storage (W) had a trend of OR > CR > NC. The response of the SMC to precipitation was gradually decreased and delayed for longer with increasing soil depth. Daily precipitation >10 mm was the threshold to trigger an SMC response below 20 cm of depth. The thresholds of precipitation to increase W were 2.09–2.54 mm at the daily scale and 29.40–32.56 mm at the monthly scale. The effect of precipitation on W and its change (∆W) also depended on the time scales. At the daily scale, precipitation only explained 1.6%, 0.9%, and 2.4% of the W variation in NC, CR, and OR, respectively. However, precipitation was more important for ∆W, making a contribution of 57.6%, 46.2%, and 56.6%, respectively, and the positive ∆W induced by precipitation happened more easily and frequently at deeper depths in OR. At the monthly scale, the contribution of precipitation to ∆W increased to 75.0%, 85.0%, and 86%, respectively. The ∆W of the whole rainy season was OR > NC > CR. Precipitation of the monthly scale displayed higher contributions to soil water than that of the daily scale. Plant components had different influences on soil water and its response to precipitation, which was strengthened by the roots, weakened by the canopy, and neutralized by the litter. Regular cutting of the canopy at the single-shrub scale may help increase water storage, which is useful for vegetation management and hydrologic regulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions between Soil Moisture and Vegetation in Fragile Ecosystems)
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14 pages, 5319 KiB  
Article
Evolution of Research on Global Soil Water Content in the Past 30 Years Based on ITGinsight Bibliometric Analysis
by Xifeng Zhang, Shuiming Liang, Jiaqi Lu and Xiaowei Cui
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(23), 15476; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315476 - 22 Nov 2022
Viewed by 2298
Abstract
Research on soil water content (SWC) has involved a wide range of disciplines and attracted constant attention. Current literature reviews primarily focus on a specific type of research on SWC and few systematic studies have been performed to fully evaluate the development and [...] Read more.
Research on soil water content (SWC) has involved a wide range of disciplines and attracted constant attention. Current literature reviews primarily focus on a specific type of research on SWC and few systematic studies have been performed to fully evaluate the development and changes in hotspots of SWC research. In this study, a bibliometric analysis and visualization are used to understand the development of SWC research in countries of Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America. The research data came from the Web of Science database and the time span was 1987–2021. Since 1987, the numbers of international SWC research papers have increased rapidly. The United States and China have the closest exchanges and most publications in the field of SWC. Keyword network maps indicated that early research on SWC was mostly in small-scale farmlands and woodlands, with diverse research hotspots including those focused on SWC stress, soil physical modeling, soil hydrothermal processes, and SWC measurement. Due to climate change, remote sensing technology development, and policies, research on SWC gradually focused on watershed, regional, and global scales, with research hotspots including those focused on evapotranspiration, land–air energy exchange, and remote sensing satellite inversion of SWC products. In addition, in recent years, the research of SWC and SMAP has attracted considerable attention worldwide. The United States has more influence in the SWC sector than China. Although the number of articles that have been published by European countries was small, the influence of those papers should not be underestimated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions between Soil Moisture and Vegetation in Fragile Ecosystems)
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25 pages, 10931 KiB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Evolution and Driving Forces of Vegetation Cover in the Urumqi River Basin
by Azimatjan Mamattursun, Han Yang, Kamila Ablikim and Nurbiya Obulhasan
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15323; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215323 - 19 Nov 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2425
Abstract
It is important to determine long-term changes in vegetation cover, and the associated driving forces, to better understand the natural and human-induced factors affecting vegetation growth. We calculated the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) of the Urumqi River basin and selected seven natural factors [...] Read more.
It is important to determine long-term changes in vegetation cover, and the associated driving forces, to better understand the natural and human-induced factors affecting vegetation growth. We calculated the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) of the Urumqi River basin and selected seven natural factors (the clay and sand contents of surface soils, elevation, aspect, slope, precipitation and temperature) and one human factor (land use type). We then used the Sen–Man–Kendall method to calculate the changing trend of the FVC from 2000 to 2020. We used the optimal parameters-based geographical detector (OPGD) model to quantitatively analyze the influence of each factor on the change in vegetation coverage in the basin. The FVC of the Urumqi River basin fluctuated from 2000 to 2020, with average values between 0.22 and 0.33. The areas with no and low vegetation coverage accounted for two-thirds of the total area, whereas the areas with a medium, medium–high and high FVC accounted for one-third of the total area. The upper reaches of the river basin are glacial and forest areas with no vegetation coverage and a high FVC. The middle reaches are concentrated in areas of urban construction with a medium FVC. The lower reaches are in unstable farmland with a medium and high FVC and deserts with a low FVC and no vegetation. From the perspective of the change trend, the areas with an improved FVC accounted for 62.54% of the basin, stable areas accounted for 5.66% and degraded areas accounted for 31.8%. The FVC showed an increasing trend in the study area. The improvement was mainly in the areas of urban construction and desert. Degradation occurred in the high-elevation areas, whereas the transitional zone was unchanged. The analysis of driving forces showed that the human factor explained more of the changes in the FVC than the natural factors in the order: land use type (0.244) > temperature (0.216) > elevation (0.205) > soil clay content (0.172) > precipitation (0.163) > soil sand content (0.138) > slope (0.059) > aspect (0.014). Apart from aspect, the explanatory power (Q value) of the interaction of each factor was higher than that of the single factor. Risk detection showed that each factor had an interval in which the change in the FVC was inhibited or promoted. The optimum elevation interval of the study area was 1300–2700 m and the greatest inhibition of the FVC was seen above 3540 m. Too much or too little precipitation inhibited vegetation coverage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions between Soil Moisture and Vegetation in Fragile Ecosystems)
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15 pages, 1774 KiB  
Article
Biomass, Carbon and Nitrogen Partitioning and Water Use Efficiency Differences of Five Types of Alpine Grasslands in the Northern Tibetan Plateau
by Liping Cheng, Beibei Zhang, Hui Zhang and Jiajia Li
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13026; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013026 - 11 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1773
Abstract
(1) Background: Grassland covers most areas of the northern Tibetan Plateau along with important global terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, so there is a need to better understand the different alpine grassland growth associated with ecosystem C, N storage and water [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Grassland covers most areas of the northern Tibetan Plateau along with important global terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, so there is a need to better understand the different alpine grassland growth associated with ecosystem C, N storage and water use efficiency (WUE). (2) Methods: The plant biomass and C, N concentrations, stocks and vegetation WUE of five kinds of alpine grassland types were investigated in northern Tibetan Plateau. (3) Results: The results showed that there were significant differences among five types of alpine grasslands in aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB), total biomass (TB) and root:shoot (R/S) ratio while the highest value of different indices was shown in alpine meadow type (AM). The AGB and BGB partitioning results significantly satisfied the allometric biomass partitioning theory. The C, N concentrations and C/N of the vegetation in AGB and BGB showed significant grassland type differences. The highest C, N stocks of BGB were in AM which was almost six or seven times more than the C, N stocks of AGB in alpine desert type (AD). There were significant differences in δ13C and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) under five alpine grassland types while the highest mean values of foliar δ13C and WUEi were in AD. Significant negative correlations were found between WUEi and C, N concentrations, C/N of AGB and soil water content (SWC) while the correlation with BGB C/N was not significant. For AGB, BGB, TB and R/S, there were positive correlations with C, N concentrations of AGB, BGB and SWC while it had significant negative correlations with C/N of BGB. (4) Conclusions: With regard to its types, it is suggested that the AM or AS may be an actively growing grassland type in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions between Soil Moisture and Vegetation in Fragile Ecosystems)
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