HR: 13:45h
AN: B23E-01 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Linking roots and rhizospheres to hydrological processes
AU: * Dawson, T E
EM: tdawson@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California - Berkeley, Dept. of Integrative Biology, Berkeley, CA 94720,
AB: There is ample evidence that shows how plants can exert very significant and often dominant –controls" over the manner and magnitude by which water and other soil-borne resources cycle through diverse ecosystems on Earth. The use and redistribution of soil water resources by root systems has been a particularly important addition to our understanding of how the movement of soil water resources can impact hydrological processes at a range of scales. When soil and plant water relations data are coupled with land-use and climatic change data and predictive models for seasonally-dry ecosystems they have revealed new insights into how the water cycle is also changing and the role that plant root functions plays in shaping fundamental aspects of the hydrological cycle. I will highlight the ways my research group as well as the work of others have used a range of methods to explore the links between roots and rhizospheres and hydrological processes. The detailed analyses of the stable isotope composition of plant and soil water and precipitation and the temporal and spatial patterns of water use by diverse trees in temperate and tropical biomes when coupled with ongoing modeling research has revealed new insights into how belowground and aboveground plant water use behaviors can impact the manned and magnitude of water cycling on local and regional scales. Further, new results clearly show the impacts that plant water uptake and use have on ecosystem carbon fixation and both temperature and precipitation patterns over vast regions like the Amazon as well as other parts of the globe covered by trees and deeply rooted woody vegetation. The combination of empirical and theoretical research results shows that plants can help sustain water recycling, can significantly impact carbon and nutrient cycles, and impact regional climate, drought and its seasonality thereby establishing a direct link between plant functioning, resource movement and the climate system across the globe.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting