Abstract
Soil temperature and moisture are important factors affecting vegetation growth and drought in desert steppe environments. These factors also strongly influence grassland ecosystems. This study interpreted long-term (2009–2019) ground observation data on soil temperature, soil moisture, and meteorological factors from a study area in Inner Mongolia. The monitoring station collected soil moisture, soil temperature, and precipitation data. Covarying relationships indicated how soil properties influence each other throughout the year. Soil temperature was clearly affected by atmospheric changes, solar radiation, and freeze/thaw processes. The surface soil layers showed the greatest degree of variation, while middle and lower layers showed less seasonal variation and smaller differences between daily highs and lows. Surface soil moisture correlates strongly with the vertical temperature decline in soil. Time series revealed major variation in soil moisture throughout the year with lower soil layers showing obvious hysteresis effects. Multi-year soil moisture data allowed for subdivision of the year into seven intervals based maximum and minimum values. Soil temperature showed unique patterns of covariation with soil moisture during different time periods. Differences in soil moisture cause more rapid changes in temperature during soil thawing relative the moisture-induced temperature changes observed 1 month after soil freezing. When soil temperature was greater than 0 °C (32 ℉), soil temperature and soil moisture showed inverse correlation. A dependency of evapotranspiration on soil temperature can explain its effect on soil moisture. When soil temperature fell below 0 °C(32 ℉), soil temperature and soil moisture showed a positive correlation. During an interval defined as the summer fluctuation (SF), precipitation and soil moisture showed a significant positive correlation. During other periods, soil moisture did not clearly covary with precipitation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander L (2011) Climate science: extreme heat rooted in dry soils. Nat Geosci 4(1):12–13
Cai J, Zhang Y, Li Y, Liang X, Jiang T (2017) Analyzing the characteristics of soil moisture using GLDAS data: a case study in Eastern China. Appl Sci 7(6):566
Chahine MT (1992) The hydrological cycle and its influence on climate. Nature 359:373–380
Che Z, Li J, Wang Y, Ding G, Li S, Di H, Che Z, Pan X, Mao Z, Guo Z (2018) Characteristics of soil temperature and water content variation in the western Qilian Mountains. Acta Ecol Sin 38(01):105–111
Chen X, Wang H (2009) Spatial and temporal variations of vegetation belts and vegetation cover degrees in Inner Mongolia f from 1982 to 2003. Acta Geogr Sin 64(01):84–94
Chen Z, Zhao J, Luo X, Shao T, Hu Q (2020) Study on soil water and water balance in spring in Xilamuren grassland. Inner Mong Ecol Sci 39(02):1–7
Fan K, Zhang Q, Sun P, Song C, Zhu X, Yu H, Shen Z (2019) Variation, causes and future estimation of surface soil moisture on the Tibetan plateau. Acta Geogr Sin 74(03):520–533
Fan T, Zhang C, Zhang G, Su Y (2020) Response of soil moisture of desert steppes to precipitation patterns in Damao Banner, Inner Mongolia. Bull Soil Water Conser 40(01):72–77
Ferranti L, Viterbo P (2006) The European Summer of 2003: Sensitivity To Soil Water Initial Conditions. J Clim 19(15):3659–3680
Fischer EM, Seneviratne SI, Vidale PL, Lüthi D, Schär C (2007) Soil moisture-atmosphere interactions during the 2003 European summer heat wave. J Clim 20(20):5081–5099
Gao Y, Markkanen T, Thum T, Aurela M, Lohila A, Mammarella I, Kämäräinen M, Hagemann S, Aalto T (2016) Assessing various drought indicators in representing summer drought in boreal forests in Finland. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 20(1):175–191
Guo Z, Dirmeyer PA, Koster RD, Bonan G, Chan E, Cox P, Gordon CT, Kanae S, Kowalczyk E, Lawrence D, Liu P, Lu CH, Malyshev S, McAvaney B, McGregor JL, Mitchell K, Mocko D, Oki T, Oleson KW, Pitman A (2006) GLACE: the global land-atmosphere coupling experiment: part 2: analysis. J Hydrometeorol 7:611–625
Han B, Zhou B, Sun Y, Zhao H, Shi M, Niu D, Fu H (2018) The characteristics of soil temperature variations and heat exchange in freeze-thaw period over southern alpine grasslands in Qinghai province. Clim Change Res 14(05):456–464
Hu G, Zhao L, Wu X, Li R, Wu T, Xie C, Qiao Y, Cheng G (2016) Comparison of different soil temperature algorithms in permafrost regions of qinghai-xizang (tibet) plateau of china. Cold Reg Technol 130:1–7
Huang S, Huang Q, Leng G, Zhao M, Meng E (2017a) Variations in annual water-energy balance and their correlations with vegetation and soil moisture dynamics: a case study in the Wei River Basin, China. J Hydrol 546:515–525
Huang S, Ming B, Huang Q, Leng G, Hou B (2017b) A case study on a combination NDVI forecasting model based on the entropy weight method. Water Resour Manag 31(11):3667–3681
Jia D, Wen J, Zhang T, Xi J (2016) Responses of soil moisture and thermal conductivity to precipitation in the mesa of the loess plateau. Environ Earth Sci 75(5):395
Kanshe Z, Suxuan L, Jun DU, Jun J, Lei S (2015) Response of soil temperature to air temperature change in tibet plateau. Chinese Journal of Agrometeorology
Koster RD, Suarez MJ, Higgins RW, Van den Dool HM (2003) Observational evidence that soil moisture variations affect precipitation. Geophys Res Lett 30(5):41–45
Koster RD, Guo Z, Dirmeyer PA, Bonan G, Chan E, Cox P, Davies H, Gordon CT, Kanae S, Kowalczyk E, Lawrence D, Liu P, Lu C, Malyshev S, McAvaney B, Mitchell K, Mocko D, Oki T, Oleson KW, Pitman A (2006) GLACE: the global land-atmosphere coupling experiment: part 1: overview. J Hydrometeorol 7:590–610
Li H, Shen W, Zou C, Jiang J, Fu L, She G (2013) Spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture and its effect on vegetation in a desertified aeolian riparian ecotone on the Tibetan plateau. China J Hydrol 479(5):215–225
Li W, Fan J, Sha Y, Chen Y, Sun J, Cheng G (2014) Soil temperature variation and thaw-freezing cycle in the alpine cold steppe. North Tibet Plateau Mt Res 32(04):407–416
Li X, Lu X, Fan J, Yan Y (2020) Analysis of soil temperature and moisture characteristics of artificial grasslands with different underlying surfaces in southeast Tibet. Pratacultural Sci 37(7):1227–1238
Liu X, Liu Q, Liu T, Duan L, Yue C (2015) Rules of the dynamic water-heat-salt transfer in soil of Horqin meadow during freezing and thawing period. Adv Water Sci 26(03):331–339
Ma Y, Meng X, Han B, Yu Y, Lv S, Luan L, Li G (2019) Observations of soil moisture influence on surface energy dynamics and planetary boundary layer characteristics over the Loess plateau. Plateau Meteorol 38(04):705–715
Mai X, Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Shi S, Huang D (2014) The dynamics changes of soil temperature and soil moisture at returning green stage in typical steppe. Grassl Turf 34(02):51–56
Mehmet B, Besir S, Levent S (2013) Estimating soil temperature using neighboring station data via multi-nonlinear regression and artificial neural network models. Environ Monit Assess 185(1):347–358
Miao B, Liang C, Han F, Liang M, Zhang Z (2016) Responses of phenology to climate change over the major grassland types. Acta Ecol Sin 36(23):7689–7701
North GR (1997) Limate change 1994: radiative forcing of climate change and an evaluation of the IPCC IS92 emission scenarios. Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). Glob Planet Change 15(12):59–60
Oki T, Kanae S (2006) Global hydrological cycles and world water resources. Science 313:1068–1072
Quan C, Zhou B, Zhu S, Xiao H, Shen X, Li F (2018) Variation characteristics of soil temperature and moisture during the freezing and thawing periods in alpine wetland in Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. J Arid Meteorol 36(02):219–225
Radha AV, Ryu D, George B, Ryu Y, Dassanayake K (2013) Analysis of root-zone soil moisture control on evapotranspiration in two agriculture fields in Australia. Modsim
Robinson DA, Campbell CS, Hopmans JW, Hornbuckle BK, Jones SB, Knight R, Ogden F, Selker J, Wendroth O (2008) Soil moisture measurement for ecological and hydrological watershed-scale observatories: a review. Vadose Zone J 7(1):358–389
Schwingshackl C, Hirschi M, Seneviratne SI (2017) Quantifying spatiotemporal variations of soil moisture control on surface energy balance and near-surface air temperature. J Clim 30(18):7105–7124
Seneviratne SI, Corti T, Davin EL, Hirschi M, Jaeger EB, Lehner I, Orlowsky B, Teuling AJ (2010) Investigating soil moisture-climate interactions in a changing climate: a review. Earth-Sci Rev 99(3–4):125–161
TangMa JY (2012) Soil temperature and moisture features of typical underlying surface in the Tibetan plateau. J Glaciol Geocryol 34(04):813–820
Tawfik AB, Steiner AL (2011) The role of soil ice in land-atmosphere coupling over the united states: a soil moisture-precipitation winter feedback mechanism. J Geophys Res Atmos. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD014333
Wan G, Yang M, Wang X (2012) Variations in soil temperature at bj site on the central tibetan plateau. J Mt Sci 9(2):274–285
Wang J, Bras RL (2009) Comment on “estimating the soil temperature profile from a single depth observation: a simple empirical heatflow solution” by T.R.H Holmes et al. Water Resour Res 45(3):W03601
Wang C, Fu B, Zhang L, Xu Z (2019) Soil moisture-plant interactions: an ecohydrological review. J Soil Sediments 19(1):1–9
Wu Y, Wang W, Jin R, Wang J, Che T (2009) The calibration of measurement of soil water content using time domain reflectometry (TDR). J Glaciol Geocryol 31(02):262–267
Yang Z, Ouyang H, Zhang X, Xu X, Zhou C, Yang W (2011) Spatial variability of soil moisture at typical alpine meadow and steppe sites in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau permafrost region. Environ Earth Sci 63(3):477–488
Yang J, Chang J, Yao J, Wang Y, Huang Q, Xu G (2019) Impact of natural climate variability on runoff based on Monte Carlo method. J Water Clim Change 10(2):344–359
You Q, Xue X, Peng F, Dong S, Gao Y (2017) Surface water and heat exchange comparison between alpine meadow and bare land in a permafrost region of the tibetan plateau. Agric For Meteorol 232:48–65
Zhang R, Zuo Z (2011) Impact of spring soil moisture on surface energy balance and summer monsoon circulation over east asia and precipitation in east china. J Clim 24(13):3309–3322
Zhang K, Peng W, Wang L, Fu A, Chu X (2007) Variation of soil temperature and soil moisture on black soil profile in seasonal frozen area of Northeast China. Geogr Res 02:314–320
Zhang J, Wang W, Wei J (2008a) Assessing land-atmosphere coupling using soil moisture from the Global Land Data Assimilation System and observational precipitation. J Geophys Res Atmos. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD009807
Zhang W, Li S, Pang Q (2008b) Variation characteristics of soil temperature over Qinghai-Xizang plateau in the past 45 years. Acta Geogr Sin 63(11):1151–1159
Zhang S, Yu P, Zhang H, Gao W, Wang Y (2013) Impact of climate change on the hydrological process in medium scale basin of arid areas. J Arid Land Resour Environ 27(10):70–74
Zhang G, Gao K, Zhang L (2015) Dynamic change of soil moisture and their relationship with climatic factors in the Jarud Banner of Inner Mongolia. Pratacultural Sci 32(9):1399–1404
Zhou Y (2019) Greenness index from phenocams performs well in linking climatic factors and monitoring grass phenology in a temperate prairie ecosystem. J Resour Ecol 10(5):481–493
Zhu Y, Wu B, Lu Q (2012) Progress in the study on response of arid zone to precipitation change. Forest Res 25(1):100–106
Zhu H, Shi Z, Fang N, Wu G, Guo Z, Zhang Y (2014) Soil moisture response to environmental factors following precipitation events in a small catchment. CATENA. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2014.04.003
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Special fund project of China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) (MK2017J05), Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Plan Project (201701024), and a sub-project of the National Key Research and Development Program of Study on Restoration and Protection of Typical Fragile Ecology, named Study and Demonstration of Sand-fixing and Wind-breaking Techniques of Cyperus Esculentus L. in North Wind-blown Sand Region (2019YFC0507600).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chang, Y., Zhang, R., Hai, C. et al. Seasonal variation in soil temperature and moisture of a desert steppe environment: a case study from Xilamuren, Inner Mongolia. Environ Earth Sci 80, 290 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09393-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09393-0