Woody Plant Encroachment has a Larger Impact than Climate Change on Dryland Water Budgets.

ABSTRACT: Woody plant encroachment (WPE) into grasslands is a global phenomenon that is associated with land degradation via xerification, which replaces grasses with shrubs and bare soil patches. It remains uncertain how the global processes of WPE and climate change may combine to impact water availability for ecosystems. Using a process-based model constrained by watershed observations, our results suggest that both xerification and climate change augment groundwater recharge by increasing channel transmission losses at the expense of plant available water. Conversion from grasslands to shrublands without creating additional bare soil, however, reduces transmission losses. Model simulations considering both WPE and climate change are used to assess their relative roles in a late 21^st c

SUBMITTER: Schreiner-McGraw AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7229153 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature