Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance
As shrubs expand across the Arctic, they alter all cycles in the Earth system, including the water cycle. However, the coupling of shrubs with the water cycle during summer remains poorly understood. Rainfall interception, a major cause of divergent hydrological responses between vegetated and non-v...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a0ea04f0e5684ae6bf148f3ad2e1e74d 2023-09-05T13:16:55+02:00 Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance Simon Zwieback Qianyu Chang Philip Marsh Aaron Berg 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 https://doaj.org/article/a0ea04f0e5684ae6bf148f3ad2e1e74d EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/a0ea04f0e5684ae6bf148f3ad2e1e74d Environmental Research Letters, Vol 14, Iss 5, p 055005 (2019) ecohydrology shrub climate change rainfall interception Arctic change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 2023-08-13T00:37:25Z As shrubs expand across the Arctic, they alter all cycles in the Earth system, including the water cycle. However, the coupling of shrubs with the water cycle during summer remains poorly understood. Rainfall interception, a major cause of divergent hydrological responses between vegetated and non-vegetated environments, is particularly poorly constrained. We quantified shrub rainfall interception and redistribution in birch and alder in the Western Canadian Arctic using networks of throughfall and stemflow gauges. We find that rainfall interception losses are a major component of the water budget, as effective rainfall was reduced by 15%–30% in the birches. Underneath alders, effective rainfall was almost as large or larger than gross rainfall, but they also left a rain shadow. The spatial variability in throughfall was substantial underneath both shrub species. Stemflow was a small but non-negligible component, as the alders concentrated ∼15% of rainfall to their few vertical stems, compared to the ∼8% the birches funnelled along their numerous, predominantly skewed stems. The substantial small-scale variability in effective rainfall may create islands in which conditions for certain biogeochemical processes are particularly favourable. On larger scales, rainfall interception reduces the water yield and thus the runoff received by downstream ecosystems such as lakes. The interception losses are predicted to increase with shrub density in a way that also depends on climatic conditions, with large losses in many coastal environments. The extent to which shrub expansion leads to drier Arctic ecosystems is, however, unclear because of the complex interplay between many ecohydrological processes. Shrub rainfall interception is one major, previously overlooked piece of this puzzle. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 14 5 055005 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
ecohydrology shrub climate change rainfall interception Arctic change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
ecohydrology shrub climate change rainfall interception Arctic change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Simon Zwieback Qianyu Chang Philip Marsh Aaron Berg Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
topic_facet |
ecohydrology shrub climate change rainfall interception Arctic change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
As shrubs expand across the Arctic, they alter all cycles in the Earth system, including the water cycle. However, the coupling of shrubs with the water cycle during summer remains poorly understood. Rainfall interception, a major cause of divergent hydrological responses between vegetated and non-vegetated environments, is particularly poorly constrained. We quantified shrub rainfall interception and redistribution in birch and alder in the Western Canadian Arctic using networks of throughfall and stemflow gauges. We find that rainfall interception losses are a major component of the water budget, as effective rainfall was reduced by 15%–30% in the birches. Underneath alders, effective rainfall was almost as large or larger than gross rainfall, but they also left a rain shadow. The spatial variability in throughfall was substantial underneath both shrub species. Stemflow was a small but non-negligible component, as the alders concentrated ∼15% of rainfall to their few vertical stems, compared to the ∼8% the birches funnelled along their numerous, predominantly skewed stems. The substantial small-scale variability in effective rainfall may create islands in which conditions for certain biogeochemical processes are particularly favourable. On larger scales, rainfall interception reduces the water yield and thus the runoff received by downstream ecosystems such as lakes. The interception losses are predicted to increase with shrub density in a way that also depends on climatic conditions, with large losses in many coastal environments. The extent to which shrub expansion leads to drier Arctic ecosystems is, however, unclear because of the complex interplay between many ecohydrological processes. Shrub rainfall interception is one major, previously overlooked piece of this puzzle. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Simon Zwieback Qianyu Chang Philip Marsh Aaron Berg |
author_facet |
Simon Zwieback Qianyu Chang Philip Marsh Aaron Berg |
author_sort |
Simon Zwieback |
title |
Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
title_short |
Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
title_full |
Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
title_fullStr |
Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
title_full_unstemmed |
Shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
title_sort |
shrub tundra ecohydrology: rainfall interception is a major component of the water balance |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 https://doaj.org/article/a0ea04f0e5684ae6bf148f3ad2e1e74d |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 14, Iss 5, p 055005 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/a0ea04f0e5684ae6bf148f3ad2e1e74d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1049 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
055005 |
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1776198326558916608 |