Ecohydrology Of Water-controlled Ecosystems: Soil Moisture And Plant Dynamics

This page intentionally left blank Ecohydrology of Water-Controlled Ecosystems Soil Moisture and Plant Dynamics Understanding of the systems that control the circulation of water between atmosphere, soil, and plant life is clearly important for a general understanding of the hydrologic cycle and the way that ecosystems operate and survive. Ecohydrology of Water-Controlled Ecosystems: Soil Moisture and Plant Dynamics addresses the connections between the hydrologic cycle and plant ecosystems, with special emphasis on arid and semi-arid climates. This book presents a quantitative understanding of the impacts of soil moisture on ecosystem dynamics using a probabilistic framework. It investigates the vegetation response to water stress (drought), the hydrologic control of cycles of soil nutrients, and the dynamics of plant competition for water. The book also offers insights into processes closely related to soil moisture dynamics, such as soil–atmosphere interaction and soil gas emissions. This modern and important topic is treated by building suitable mathematical models of the physics involved and then applying them to study the ecosystem structure and its response to rainfall and climate forcing in different parts of the world, including savannas, grasslands, and forests. The book 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. IGNACIO RODRIGUEZ-ITURBE is Theodora Shelton Pitney Professor of Environmental Sciences and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. Professor Rodriguez-Iturbe is the author of over 200 research papers and several books, including Fractal River Basins: Chance and Self-Organization with Andrea Rinaldo (Cambridge, 1997). A member of the US National Academy of Engineers, and many other academies throughout the world, he is the winner of numerous national and international awards including the Stockholm Water Prize, the Horton and Macelwane Medals of the American Geophysical Union, the Langbein Lecture (also AGU), the Huber Prize and V. T. Chow Award (American Society of Civil Engineering), the Horton Lecture (American Meteorological Society), the Premio Mexico, and the Premio Nacional de Ciencias de Venezuela. AMILCARE PORPORATO is Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University. He is the author of more than 50 research papers. He received the Arturo Parisatti International Prize, awarded by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti. He has been a research associate in the Civil Engineering, Environmental and Water Resources Division at Texas A&M University and the Department of Civil Engineering at Princeton University. He was chairman of the last two Ecohydrology sessions of the American Geophysical Union Spring Meeting. Ecohydrology of Water-Controlled Ecosystems Soil Moisture and Plant Dynamics Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe Princeton University, New Jersey, USA Amilcare Porporato Duke University, North Carolina, USA    Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , UK Published in the Un