HR: 17:00h
AN: H24D-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Energy and Water Fluxes in Heterogeneous Mediterranean Water-limited Ecosystems
AU: * Detto, M
EM: matteo.detto@polimi.it
AF: Matteo Detto, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Idraulica, Ambientale Infrastrutture viarie, e del Rilevamento, Fantoli Lab. Building Politecnico di Milano Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, Milano, MI 20133 Italy
AU: Katul, G
EM: gaby@duke.edu
AF: Gabriel Katul, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Levine Science Research Center (LSRC), A318, Research Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0328 United States
AU: Mancini, M
EM: marco.mancini@polimi.it
AF: Marco Mancini, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Idraulica, Ambientale Infrastrutture viarie, e del Rilevamento, Fantoli Lab. Building Politecnico di Milano Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, Milano, MI 20133 Italy
AB: Research efforts in distributed eco-hydrologic models often fall in one of two categories: prognostic, in which predictions of root-zone soil moisture content and land surface fluxes is required for a projected radiative and precipitation forcing time series, or diagnostic in which the relationship between soil water status and atmospheric water vapor demand is to be derived for the various components of the landscape. The latter relationships are now receiving broad attention in climate change, hydrological, and ecological studies of arid and semi-arid ecosystems. This interest is now a central focus given the recognition that the component latent heat flux sensitivity to soil moisture decline can directly impact plant productivity, carbon and nutrient cycling, and ground water recharge. With projected shifts in precipitation statistics, mainly towards increased desertification, the "stability" of these ecosystems is highly dependent on their ability to uptake water at low soil moisture Here, we determine the relationship between soil water status and atmospheric water vapor demand for patchy landscapes within a semi-arid ecosystems using a combination remote sensing products and field experiments. In particular, we investigate how VIS/NIR measurements, in conjunction with standard micrometeorological data and ground based thermal infrared thermometers, provide "diagnostic" hydrologic relationship between soil water content and potential evapo-transpiration for the various components of the landscape. These experiments were conducted in the Orroli site, situated in the mid-west of Sardinia (Italy) within the Flumendosa river watershed, which is considered one of the most important water supply resources to the island. The landscape is a mixture of Mediterranean patchy vegetation types: trees, including wild olives (/Olea sylvestris/) and cork oaks (/Quercus suber/), different shrubs (/Asparagus acutifolius, Rubus ulmifolius/) and herbaceous species (/Asphodelus microcarpus, Ferula comunis, Scolymus hispanicum/) that are present only during wet seasons. The bare soil is the dominant landcover (~70%) during the summer .
DE: 1640 Remote sensing (1855)
DE: 1814 Energy budgets
DE: 1836 Hydrological cycles and budgets (1218, 1655)
DE: 1878 Water/energy interactions (0495)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005