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Impacts of devegetation on the temporal evolution of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity in a vegetated sand dune area

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Abstract

Soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (K S ) is partly affected by vegetation activities, which can either increase K S by enhancing macropore flow or reduce K S by clogging pore space. Despite the complex interactions of K S with vegetation, the impact of devegetation on K S has not been adequately addressed, particularly in regions that are prone to drought-induced devegetation. In this study, the impacts of devegetation on K S in a native grassland-stabilized sand dune area were investigated by artificially controlling surface vegetation at an experimental site in the Nebraska Sand Hills. The experimental results revealed that the temporal evolution of K S at the site was mainly affected by the erosion processes triggered by devegetation. Over a short-term (about 1 year), the impact of devegetation on K S was negligible, owing to that the existence of dead root systems prevented erosion processes. By comparison, the long-term impact of devegetation on K S emerged when devegetation-induced erosion processes exposed deeper soil layers with higher K S . Particularly, the dunetop locations that experienced higher erosion rates had larger temporal changes in K S . Thus, the impacts of devegetation on K S mainly depended on two factors (i.e., time and topographic locations) that were related to erosion processes in this native grassland-stabilized sand dune area. To further investigate the ecohydrological implications of the temporal change in K S , a newly developed ecohydrological model was also employed, and the simulation results showed that the impacts of changes in K S on water balance components and biomass production were non-negligible and highly nonlinear. In spite of previous studies, the findings presented here demonstrate the close tie between near-surface hydrology and land surface evolution processes controlled by vegetation in sand dune areas, and highlight the importance of coupling eco-hydro-geomorphic interactions in the context of climate change.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank O. Yetemen (UW) for helping with the field experiments and V. Zlotnik (UNL) for reviewing the paper, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments that led to the improvement of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Hardin Hall, 3310 Holdrege Street, Lincoln, NE, 68583, USA

    Tiejun Wang, David Wedin & Paul Hanson

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Erkan Istanbulluoglu

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  1. Tiejun Wang
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  2. Erkan Istanbulluoglu
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  3. David Wedin
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  4. Paul Hanson
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Correspondence to Tiejun Wang.

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Wang, T., Istanbulluoglu, E., Wedin, D. et al. Impacts of devegetation on the temporal evolution of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity in a vegetated sand dune area. Environ Earth Sci 73, 7651–7660 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3936-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3936-8

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