Drought in forest understory ecosystems – a novel rainfall reduction experiment
Precipitation patterns across Central Europe are expected to change over the 21st century due to climate change. This may reduce water availability during the plant-growing season and hence affect the performance and vitality of forest ecosystems. We established a novel rainfall reduction experiment...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2015-02-01
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| Series: | Biogeosciences |
| Online Access: | http://www.biogeosciences.net/12/961/2015/bg-12-961-2015.pdf |
| Summary: | Precipitation patterns across Central Europe are expected to change over the
21st century due to climate change. This may reduce water availability
during the plant-growing season and hence affect the performance and
vitality of forest ecosystems. We established a novel rainfall reduction
experiment on nine sites in Germany to investigate drought effects on
soil–forest–understory ecosystems. A realistic, but extreme annual drought
with a return period of 40 years, which corresponds to the
2.5% percentile of the annual precipitation, was imposed. At all sites,
we were able to reach the target values of rainfall reduction, while other
important ecosystem variables like air temperature, humidity, and soil
temperature remained unaffected due to the novel design of a flexible roof.
The first year of drought showed considerable changes in the soil moisture
dynamics relative to the control sites, which affected leaf stomatal
conductance of understory species as well as evapotranspiration rates of the
forest understory. |
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| ISSN: | 1726-4170 1726-4189 |