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On the Concerted Adaptation of Soil, Water and Vegetation to Water Management and Climate Change

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2020) | Viewed by 10637

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. ir. Jan-Philip M. Witte

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Guest Editor
KWR Watercycle Research Institute, Nieuwegein, Netherlands; System Ecology Group, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Interests: ecohydrology; nature conservation; water management; climate change
Dr. ir. Ruud P. Bartholomeus

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
KWR Watercycle Research Institute, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands; Soil Physics and Land Management, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Interests: ecohydrology; agriculture; water management; climate change; water reuse

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In rural areas, available freshwater resources are increasingly under pressure due to the growing competion of land use functions for available water. Both natural vegetation and agricultural crops depend largely on soil moisture conditions in the root zone. Climate change leads to more prolonged drought periods that alternate with more intensive rainfall events. With unaltered water management practices, this may result in a severe reduction of crop yields and plant biodiversity. These risks can partly be avoided by adapting the groundwater and surface water regime. This Special Issue is seeking contributions focussing on i) a better understanding of interacting processes in the groundwater–soil–plant–atmosphere system, both of natural vegetation and crops, ii) effects of climate change on the future freshwater availability for nature and agriculture, iii) adaptive measures to anticipate and adapt to limited freshwater availability, and iv) integrated approaches to optimize freswater availability for all land use functions.

Dr. Ruud P. Ruud P. Bartholomeus
Prof. Dr. Jan-Philip M. Witte
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • freshwater availability
  • climate change
  • climate adaptation
  • water management
  • groundwater
  • soil moisture
  • irrigation
  • biodiversity
  • modeling

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2620 KiB  
Article
Technical Note: A Device to Directly Measure Transpiration from Vegetation Grown in Containers
by Stefanie Pflug, Bernard R. Voortman and Jan-Philip M. Witte
Water 2020, 12(2), 355; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020355 - 28 Jan 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3263
Abstract
Information about evaporation and transpiration fluxes is vital for water budgets, modeling of water flows and climate, as well as for assessing the hydrological impact of land management practices. Under natural conditions, these fluxes are difficult to measure accurately, which results in large [...] Read more.
Information about evaporation and transpiration fluxes is vital for water budgets, modeling of water flows and climate, as well as for assessing the hydrological impact of land management practices. Under natural conditions, these fluxes are difficult to measure accurately, which results in large measurement inaccuracies. These inaccuracies can be reduced in controlled experiments. We present a device that is especially useful for transpiration studies conducted in large and/or heavy containers where weighing becomes too cumbersome or expensive. With our device we set a water table and control soil moisture of potted small trees by periodically replenishing soil water consumed by the tree, thereby measuring the inflow volume, which represent whole-tree transpiration. The device is made of inexpensive, easily available and durable materials and can be used for in- and outdoor experiments. Data acquisition is fast and easy. The mean measurement error of the device is 4.5% (±3.2% SD) for refill (i.e., transpiration) volumes of 1.5 L or larger. For a transpiring surface of 3 m², this amount is equal to an accuracy of 0.02 mm. Validation on field data showed that transpiration measured by the device is comparable to transpiration measured by gravimetric changes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue On the Concerted Adaptation of Soil, Water and Vegetation to Water Management and Climate Change)
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17 pages, 2894 KiB  
Article
Effects of the Freezing–Thawing Cycle Mode on Alpine Vegetation in the Nagqu River Basin of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
by Zihao Man, Baisha Weng, Yuheng Yang, Xiaoyan Gong, Meng Li and Zhilei Yu
Water 2019, 11(10), 2122; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102122 - 13 Oct 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3701
Abstract
The freezing–thawing cycle is a basic feature of a frozen soil ecosystem, and it affects the growth of alpine vegetation both directly and indirectly. As the climate changes, the freezing–thawing mode, along with its impact on frozen soil ecosystems, also changes. In this [...] Read more.
The freezing–thawing cycle is a basic feature of a frozen soil ecosystem, and it affects the growth of alpine vegetation both directly and indirectly. As the climate changes, the freezing–thawing mode, along with its impact on frozen soil ecosystems, also changes. In this research, the freezing–thawing cycle of the Nagqu River Basin in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau was studied. Vegetation growth characteristics and microbial abundance were analyzed under different freezing–thawing modes. The direct and indirect effects of the freezing–thawing cycle mode on alpine vegetation in the Nagqu River Basin are presented, and the changing trends and hazards of the freezing–thawing cycle mode due to climate change are discussed. The results highlight two major findings. First, the freezing–thawing cycle in the Nagqu River Basin has a high-frequency mode (HFM) and a low-frequency mode (LFM). With the influence of climate change, the LFM is gradually shifting to the HFM. Second, the alpine vegetation biomass in the HFM is lower than that in the LFM. Frequent freezing–thawing cycles reduce root cell activity and can even lead to root cell death. On the other hand, frequent freezing–thawing cycles increase microbial (Bradyrhizobium, Mesorhizobium, and Pseudomonas) death, weaken symbiotic nitrogen fixation and the disease resistance of vegetation, accelerate soil nutrient loss, reduce the soil water holding capacity and soil moisture, and hinder root growth. This study provides a complete response mechanism of alpine vegetation to the freezing–thawing cycle frequency while providing a theoretical basis for studying the change direction and impact on the frozen soil ecosystem due to climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue On the Concerted Adaptation of Soil, Water and Vegetation to Water Management and Climate Change)
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21 pages, 2114 KiB  
Article
Identifying Sensitive Model Parameter Combinations for Uncertainties in Land Surface Process Simulations over the Tibetan Plateau
by Fei Peng and Guodong Sun
Water 2019, 11(8), 1724; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11081724 - 19 Aug 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3218
Abstract
Model parameters are among the primary sources of uncertainties in land surface models (LSMs). Over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), simulations of land surface processes, which have not been well captured by current LSMs, can significantly affect the accurate representations of the weather and [...] Read more.
Model parameters are among the primary sources of uncertainties in land surface models (LSMs). Over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), simulations of land surface processes, which have not been well captured by current LSMs, can significantly affect the accurate representations of the weather and climate impacts of the TP in numerical weather prediction and climate models. Therefore, to provide guidelines for improving the performance of LSMs over the TP, it is essential to quantify the uncertainties in the simulated land surface processes associated with model parameters and detect the most sensitive parameters. In this study, five observational sites were selected to well represent the land surfaces of the entire TP. The impacts of 28 uncertain parameters from the common land model (CoLM) on the simulated surface heat fluxes (including sensible and latent heat fluxes) and soil temperature were quantified using the approach of conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation related to parameters (CNOP-P). The results showed that parametric uncertainties could induce considerable simulation uncertainties in surface heat fluxes and soil temperature. Thus, errors in parameters should be reduced. To inform future parameter estimation efforts, a three-step sensitivity analysis framework based on the CNOP-P was applied to identify the most sensitive parameter combinations with four member parameters for sensible and latent heat fluxes as well as soil temperature. Additionally, the most sensitive parameter combinations were screened out and showed variations with the target state variables and sites. However, the combinations also bore some similarities. Generally, three or four members from the most sensitive combinations were soil texture related. Furthermore, it was only at the wetter sites that parameters related to vegetation were contained in the most sensitive parameter combinations. In the future, studies on parameter estimations through multiobjective or single-objective optimization can be conducted to improve the performance of LSMs over the TP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue On the Concerted Adaptation of Soil, Water and Vegetation to Water Management and Climate Change)
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