Soil Plant Atmosphere Coupling During Interstorm Periods

Several findings emerge here: (1) rapid plant growth and slow rehydration responses to surface rewetting are more widespread than previously thought. Given their additional water stress responses to interstorm drying, global vegetation and consequently the carbon cycle are vulnerable to shifting rainfall intensity and interstorm length under climate change. (2) Landscapes most vulnerable to environmental variability and change are those that progressively spend more time in the water-limited regime, not necessarily those that receive the greatest forcing variability. (3) Satellite plant water content observations contain information on sub-weekly timescales consistent with plant hydraulic theory and field measurements, which reveals new avenues for vegetation remote sensing and ecological modeling efforts.

This book addresses the connections between the hydrologic cycle and plant ecosystems. It will appeal to advanced students and researchers from a large range of disciplines, including environmental science, hydrology, ecology, earth science, civil and environmental engineering, agriculture, and atmospheric science.

This book considers an array of state-of-the-art coupling and modelling concepts. First the relevant Earth system cycles are presented, followed by a discussion on scale issues and multiple equilibria. Inter- and intra-compartmental coupling is addressed, along with a debate on non-linearities and questions of parameterisation. Several applications are presented, where a focus is on cases where the hydrological cycle plays a central role.

In this small book I have tried to confine myself to the absolute necessities in a field which requires a knowledge of both biology and physics. It is meant as a primer for biological undergraduates. I hope it will lead some of them to further, more advanced, study. It has not been easy to present the subject in so few pages, and I am aware of many omissions. I hope readers will agree that it is best to concentrate on a small number of topics, which together constitute an essay on plant-atmosphere relationships. Advanced students will be able to take the subject further if they look up some of the references. Text books that I particularly recommend are those by Monteith [38] and Campbell [lOO]. If the reader intends to carry out research investigations he should also consult Fritschen and Lloyd [105] for an introduction to instrumentation in environmental biophysics.