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Effects of precipitation pulses on water and carbon dioxide fluxes in two semiarid ecosystems: measurement and modeling

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Abstract

Modeling of soil–water, –heat and –carbon (C) fluxes provides an important tool for predicting mass and energy transfers based on a hydraulic-, thermal- and C-mass balance approach. Model predictions were evaluated using measured data from two water-limited study sites, one pasture and one supporting an alfalfa crop, to indentify differences between these ecosystems. Soil water content, temperature, and evapotranspiration (ET) data were used to validate soil water dynamics components of a process-based numerical model. Soil surface CO2 efflux estimates (i.e., fluxes from soil respiration) were also made to estimate soil CO2 emissions. The results show that the Hydrus-1D numerical model can be parameterized to simulate the soil hydrodynamics and CO2 fluxes measured at both locations. Rainfall and irrigation events triggering increases in plant root and microbial respiration rates were simulated to recreate observed pulsed CO2 fluxes. There were distinct differences in ET and soil CO2 effluxes between the ecosystems and watering events significantly modified the fluxes. Differences in potential evapotranspiration and soil texture could help explain these discrepancies. The results demonstrate that numerical modeling can be a useful tool for estimating soil surface fluxes in calibrated ecosystems when micrometeorological methods may not be suitable.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge funding by the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams—Process simulation of soil and water of a watershed and The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40601041). Thanks to two anonymous referees for suggestions and helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Fan & Ming Bin Huang

  2. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Fan, Li Bing Qi, Quan Jiu Wang & Ming Bin Huang

  3. Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Scott B. Jones

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  1. Jun Fan
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  2. Scott B. Jones
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  3. Li Bing Qi
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  4. Quan Jiu Wang
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  5. Ming Bin Huang
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Correspondence to Jun Fan.

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Fan, J., Jones, S.B., Qi, L.B. et al. Effects of precipitation pulses on water and carbon dioxide fluxes in two semiarid ecosystems: measurement and modeling. Environ Earth Sci 67, 2315–2324 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1678-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1678-z

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