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Volume 8
Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
ISSN: 2157-7625
Ecology 2018
March 19-20, 2018
March 19-20, 2018 | Berlin, Germany
World Conference on Ecology
Throughfall and its spatial variability beneath xerophytic shrub canopies within water-limited arid
desert ecosystems
Yafeng Zhang
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
T
hroughfall is known to be a critical component of the hydrological and biogeochemical cycles of forested ecosystems with
inherently temporal and spatial variability. Yet little is understood concerning the throughfall variability of shrubs and
the associated controlling factors in arid desert ecosystems. Here we systematically investigated the variability of throughfall
of two morphological distinct xerophytic shrubs (Caragana korshinskii and Artemisia ordosica) within a re-vegetated arid
desert ecosystem, and evaluated the effects of shrub structure and rainfall characteristics on throughfall based on heavily
gauged throughfall measurements at the event scale. We found that morphological differences were not sufficient to generate
significant difference (P<0.05) in throughfall between two studied shrub species under the same rainfall and meteorological
conditions in our study area, with a throughfall percentage of 69.7% for C. korshinskii and 64.3% for A. ordosica. We also
observed a highly variable patchy pattern of throughfall beneath individual shrub canopies, but the spatial patterns appeared
to be stable among rainfall events based on time stability analysis. Throughfall linearly increased with the increasing distance
from the shrub base for both shrubs, and radial direction beneath shrub canopies had a pronounced impact on throughfall.
Throughfall variability, expressed as the coefficient of variation (CV) of throughfall, tended to decline with the increase in
rainfall amount, intensity and duration, and stabilized passing a certain threshold. Our findings highlight the great variability
of throughfall beneath the canopies of xerophytic shrubs and the time stability of throughfall pattern among rainfall events.
The spatially heterogeneous and temporally stable throughfall is expected to generate a dynamic patchy distribution of soil
moisture beneath shrub canopies within arid desert ecosystems.
zhangyafeng1986@gmail.comJ Ecosyst Ecography 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7625-C1-033