Abstract
Soil water and nutrient dynamics of a forest ecosystem process model have been modified to simulate productivity and seasonal water use patterns in Artemisia, Agropyron, and Bromus communities in south-central Washington, USA. Measured soil water profiles indicate that each of the three communities exerts substantially different influence on the hydrologic balance of the intermountain sagebrush-steppe, and each requires unique model parameterization to accurately simulate the natural balance between soil water availability and annual carbon accumulation. Yearly simulations predicted soil moisture content for each community for 56 dates in 1992 with R2 values ranging from 0.93 to 0.98. Model relationships between soil water availability, transpiring leaf area, water use efficiency, and respiration costs of substantial below-ground productivity illustrate key ecophysiological considerations for arid land process modeling.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 151-162 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Ecological Modelling |
| Volume | 84 |
| Issue number | 1-3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1996 |
Funding
We would like to thank Dr. E. Raymond Hunt for critical reviews of the manuscript, and Mr. Lars L. Pierce for helpful discussions in designing the study. Special thanks to Ora P. Gifford and Mary Jo Harris at Pacific Northwest Laboratories for providing climatic data and field measurements, respectively. This research was supported by the Ecological Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-ACO6-76RLO 1830 with Battelle Memorial Institute, and by NASA Contract No. NAS5-31368 to Dr. Steven W. Running.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DE-ACO6-76RLO 1830 | |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | |
| Battelle |
Keywords
- Seasonality
- Water dynamics
