Within the field of ecosystem science, substantial progress has been made towards our knowledge of the factors which shape the global distribution of vegetation. However, factors which control the biogeography of belowground vegetation structure and function remain less understood than their aboveground counterpart. Vegetation types can differ substantially in terms of belowground processes such as root growth, root turnover, and resulting vertical root distributions. Fine roots provide an exchange surface, allowing transport of water and nutrients to the leaves. On the other hand they also represent a significant sink for photosynthetically fixed carbon to the soil in terms of maintenance and growth. Overall, root processes have a major influence on fluxes of water, carbon and nutrients within ecosystems. In this thesis, an electrical impedance method was used to determine the area of ‘active’ root in contact with the soil for the purpose of absorption. These measurements were compared to the leaf area of the trees, for the first time allowing the aboveground and the belowground resource exchange areas of plant to be contrasted. This approach was first developed to compare the exchange surface areas of leaves and roots within a Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) managed forest, making measurements in adjacent stands of differing tree density, but identical in age. Stem density was found to significantly influence the proportion of absorbing root area relative to leaves. Following the successful test of the method, it was used to compare the resource exchange areas of eight stands of forest and savanna vegetation in central Brazil. Across a broad gradient of vegetation structure, the results showed progressively more investment in fine root area relative to leaf area across the transition from dense forest to open savanna. However, a contrasting result showed that the forests had a higher absorbing root area to leaf area ratio than savannas. Furthermore, these measured ratios were strongly correlated with tree height across the eight structurally contrasting stands. It appears that absorbing root area index provides a physiologically meaningful way of characterising belowground water uptake ability, it is possible that excessive investment in fine root area, relative to leaf area, may reflect differences in the requirement for nutrient uptake in poor soils. Complementary to the analysis of root absorbing area, measurements of root activity and belowground carbon cycling were made by focussing on two of the eight tropical study sites. Here, the carbon costs of root growth and respiration were quantified to develop a belowground carbon budget for two structurally contrasting Brazilian savannas, using soil respiration measurements and a root presence/absence manipulation experiment. Annual estimates showed that at least 60% of the total CO2 efflux from the soil was contributed by autotrophic processes, with this value rising to 80% during the dry season. Seasonal fluctuations of soil respiration were strongly correlated with soil moisture for both the autotrophic (R2=0.79, pvalue< 0.05) and heterotrophic (R2=0.90, p-value<0.05) components, with maximum flux rates corresponding with 16.4 and 17.7% soil moisture content respectively. Furthermore, autotrophic respiration was found to varied with phonological patterns of fine root growth (R2=0.80, p-value<0.05). It follows that, the way in which phenological processes respond to a changing climate is of potential importance within seasonally dry regions. Diurnal fluctuations of heterotrophic CO2 efflux were correlated with soil temperature (R2=0.74, p-value<0.05), demonstrating a Q10 value of 1.6 across both sites. In contrast, total soil CO2 efflux was not correlated with temperature (p-value=0.31), suggesting that autotrophic respiration is predominantly limited by substrate supply.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Soil moisture is an important variable in many environmental researches and application areas as it affects the interactions between atmosphere and land surface by controlling the energy and water exchange. The current measurement techniques are insufficient to acquire accurate large-scale root zone soil moisture (RZSM) data at the spatial resolution of interest. Though assorted models have been successfully applied in relatively small areas to estimate RZSM, the large-scale estimation is still facing challenges as it requires the flexibility and practicality of the models for the applications under various conditions. Though physically based soil moisture models are widely used, the errors in model physics affect the flexibility of these models meanwhile their large demand of data and computational resources reduces the practicality. On the contrary, the statistical and data-driven methods have high potential but their applications for large-scale RZSM estimation have not been fully explored. To develop feasible models for large-scale RZSM estimation using the surface observations, artificial neural networks, specifically multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), were applied in this study to estimate RZSM at the depths of 20cm and 50cm, using the data of 557 stations in the United States. Two experiments including four models were developed and the input variables of the models were carefully selected. The sensitivity analysis found that surface soil moisture and the cumulative rainfall, snowfall, air temperature and surface soil temperature were important inputs. If given soil texture data as inputs, the models achieved better performance and were extremely sensitive to them. The results showed that the MLPs were effective and flexible for the estimation of soil moisture at 20cm under various climate types and were insensitive to the potential errors in soil moisture datasets. However, the results of the estimation at 50cm are not as good as that of the 20cm. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Good estimates of soil hydraulic parameters and their distribution in a catchment is essential for crop and hydrological models. Measurements of soil properties by experimental methods are expensive and often time consuming, and in order to account for spatial variability of these parameters in the catchment, it becomes necessary to conduct large number of measurements. Estimation of soil parameters by inverse modelling using observations on either surface soil moisture or crop variables has been successfully attempted in many studies, but difficulties to estimate root zone properties arise for heterogeneous layered soils. Although extensive soil data is becoming more and more available at various scales in the form of digital soil maps there is still a large gap between this available information and the input parameters needed for hydrological models. Inverse modeling has been extensively used but the spatial variability of the parameters and insufficient data sets restrict its applicability at the catchment scale. Use of remote sensed soil moisture data to estimate soil properties using the inverse modeling approach received attention in recent years but yielded only an estimate of the surface soil properties. However, in multilayered and heterogeneous soil systems the estimation of soil properties of different layers yielded poor results due to uncertainties in simulating root zone soil moisture from remote sensed surface soil moisture. Surface soil properties can be estimated by inverse approach using surface soil moisture data retrieved from remote sensing data. Since soil moisture retrieved from remote sensing is representative of the top 5 cm only, inversion of models using surface soil moisture cannot give good estimates of soil properties of deeper layers. Crop variables like biomass and leaf area index are sensitive to the deeper layer soil properties. The main focus of this study is to develop a methodology of estimation of root zone soil hydraulic properties in heterogeneous soils by crop model based inversion techniques. Further the usefulness of the radar soil moisture and leaf area index in retrieving soil hydraulic properties using the develop approach is be tested in different soil and crop combinations. A brief introduction about the soil hydraulic properties and their importance in agro-hydrological model is discussed in Chapter 1. Soil water retention parameters are explained in detail in this chapter. A detailed review of the literature is presented in chapter 2 to establish the state of art on the following: (i) estimation of soil hydraulic properties, (ii) role of crop models in estimating soil hydraulic properties, (iii) retrieval of surface soil moisture using water cloud model from SAR data, (iv) retrieval of leaf area index from SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data and (v) modeling of root zone soil moisture and potential recharge. The thesis proposes a methodology for estimating the root zone soil hydraulic properties viz. field capacity, wilting point and soil thickness. To test the methodology developed in this thesis for estimating the soil hydraulic properties and their uncertainty, three synthetic experiments were conducted by inversion of STICS (Simulateur mulTIdiscplinaire pour les Cultures Standard) model for maize crop using the GLUE (Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation) approach. The estimability of soil hydraulic properties in a layer-wise heterogeneous soil was examined with several sets of likelihood combinations, using leaf area index, surface soil moisture and above ground biomass. The robustness of the approach is tested with parameter estimation (model inversion) in two different meteorological conditions. The details of the numerical experiments and the several likelihood and meteorological cases examined are given in Chapter 3. The likelihood combination of leaf area index and surface soil moisture provided consistently good estimates of soil hydraulic properties for all soil types and different meteorological cases. Relatively wet year provided better estimates of soil hydraulic properties as compared with a dry year. To validate the approach of estimating root zone soil properties and to test the applicability of the approach in several crops and soil types, field measurements were carried out in the Berambadi experimental watershed located in the Kabini river basin in south India. The profile soil measurements were made for every 10 cm upto 1 m depth. Maize, Marigold, Sunflower, Sorghum and Turmeric crops were monitored during the four year period from 2010 to 2013. Crop growth parameters viz. leaf area index, above ground biomass, yield, phenological stages and crop management activities were measured/monitored at 10 day frequency for all the five crops in the study area. The details of the field experiments performed, the data collected and the results of the model inversion using the ground measured data are given in Chapter 4. The likelihood combination of leaf area index and surface soil moisture provided consistently lower root mean square error (1.45 to 2.63 g/g) and uncertainty in the estimation of soil hydraulic properties for all soil crop and meteorological cases. The uncertainty in the estimation of soil hydraulic properties was lower in the likelihood combination of leaf area index and soil moisture. Estimability of depth of root zone showed sensitivity to the rooting depth. Estimating root zone soil properties at field plot scale using SAR data (incidence angle 24o, wave length 5.3 GHz) of RADARSAT-2 is presented in the Chapter 5. In the first step, an approach of estimating leaf area index from radar vegetation index using the parametric growth curve of leaf area index and the retrieval of soil moisture using water cloud model are given in Chapter 5. The parameters of the growth curve and the leaf area index are generated using a time series of RADARSAT-2 for two years 2010-2011 and 2011-12 for the crops (maize, marigold, sunflower, sorghum and turmeric) considered in this study. The surface soil moisture is retrieved using the water cloud model, which is calibrated using the ground measured values of leaf area index and surface soil moisture for different soils and crops in the study area. The calibration and validation of LAI and water cloud models are discussed in this Chapter. Eventually, the retrieved leaf area index and surface soil moisture from RADARSAT-2 data were used to estimate the soil hydraulic properties and their uncertainty in a similar manner as discussed in Chapter 4 for various crop and soil plots and the results are presented in Chapter 5. The mean and uncertainty in the estimation of soil hydraulic properties using inversion of remote sensing data provided results similar to the estimates from inversion of ground data. The estimates of soil hydraulic properties compared well (R2 of 0.7 to 0.80 and RMSE of 2.1 to 3.16 g/g) with the physically measured vales of the parameters. In Chapter 6, root zone soil moisture and potential recharge are modelled using the STICS model and the soil hydraulic parameters estimated using the RADARSAT-2 data. The potential recharge is highly sensitive to the water holding capacity of rooting zone. Variability in the root zone soil moisture for wet and dry years for different soil types on irrigated and non-irrigated crops were investigated. Potential recharge from different crop and soil types were compared. The uncertainty in the estimation of potential recharge due to uncertainty in the estimation of field capacity is quantified. The root zone soil moisture modeled by STICS showed good agreement with the measured root zone soil moisture in all crop and soil cases. This was tested for both dry and wet year and provides similar results. The temporal variability of root zone soil moisture was also modeled well by the STICS model; the model also predicted well the intra-soil variability of soil moisture of root zone. The results of the modeling of root zone soil moisture and potential recharge are presented in Chapter 6. At the end, in Chapter 7, the major conclusions drawn from the various chapters are summarized.

Root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) is an important variable when forecasting plant growth, determining water availability during drought, and understanding evapotranspiration as a flux. However, current methods indirectly estimate RZSM using data assimilation, which requires time-series data to make model-based predictions. This is because direct measurement requires a lower frequency signal, typically P-band and below (<500MHz), to reach root zone depths and, in turn, necessitates a larger antenna to be deployed in space, which is often unfeasible. A new remote sensing technique known as Signals of Opportunity (SoOp) reutilizes transmitted communication signals to perform microwave remote sensing. This means that SoOp platforms need not include a transmitter, but rather rely on passive radar technology to make measurements. This thesis details the development of a UAS-based P-band SoOp receiver instrument. This platform will be used to progress the state-of-art in techniques for direct measurement of RZSM.

Thesis (MScAgric (Viticulture and Oenology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / ABSTRACT: The grapevine must constantly find a balance between two continually changing environments, the rhizosphere (i.e. soil) and the troposphere (i.e. macroclimate). The adaptations are extremely complex because they encompass complicated and interrelated processes that are not yet fully understood. In terms of water-use behaviour, differences between cultivars have been described in the literature. In this study, the water status and stomatal conductance of four cultivars (Shiraz, Grenache, Pinot noir and Chardonnay) grafted onto R99 were studied. Diurnal cycles of water status and stomatal conductance, from 07:00 to 19:00, were followed for a single day at the end of the 2009 season. The results showed that, at the end of the season, Shiraz was subjected to water stress conditions, losing leaves and showing symptoms of berry shrivelling. The other three cultivars had a much better canopy status and no symptoms of berry shrivelling were observed. Based on the canopy observations and a comparison of the curves of stem water potential (Ψs) and stomatal conductance (gs), it seems that Pinot noir and Chardonnay are closer to the water-use behaviour of Grenache noir, which is known as a “pessimistic” cultivar, than to Shiraz, which is an “optimistic” cultivar. A study of four plots each of Chardonnay/101.14 Mgt and Shiraz/101.14 Mgt was carried out in eight commercial vineyards in the Robertson region in order to investigate the relationship between soil and root morphology, and the influence thereof on canopy development and berry growth. These plots had different soil types. Important soil properties are reported to limit root growth, individually or as a combination of restrictions. It was found that the size of the root system of 101.14 Mgt is defined by soil physical and chemical properties. The roots of 101.14 Mgt under irrigation can grow to a depth of 100 cm or beyond if the soil physical and chemical properties allow it. Because the soil properties define the root system and the water storage/drainage, they greatly influence the plant water status, even under irrigation. In an arid zone like Robertson, irrigation is an important management tool. The balance between canopy growth before véraison and the ability of the root-soil system to maintain that canopy size during the ripening process is crucial in an area with a high evaporative demand. In this regard, not all the soil properties-root system combinations showed satisfactory performance in maintaining the canopy functioning, which affected berry sugar loading and berry volume. In another study that is presented, forty soil profiles were characterised in the Robertson valley. The root systems were considered as a product of the soil properties, and thus the morphology of the root systems was used as a starting point to group soils together. The importance of soil depth has been described well, thus the root systems were first classified according to rooting depth – into shallow and deep root systems. The deep root systems were then subdivided, creating two subgroups of high root density and low root density. The two extreme groups (i.e. shallow roots, and deep roots with high root density) have particularly different soil properties. The soil characteristics found in these extremes are represented up to certain point by families of the South African soil taxonomy, mainly due to the restrictive function of the B horizon. This restrictive function is related to soil properties that are taken into consideration in the South African soil classification and that are important for grapevine root growth, as well as the thickness of the described horizons and the physical and chemical differences between the horizons. Soil properties have an important influence on root morphology. Due to the fundamental role played by the root system in the overall plant functioning, soil properties are of critical importance. In an arid area, the low water pressure in the atmosphere and the high temperature greatly affect the plant water status. The soil-root system combination plays an important role in the ability of the root system to supply the plant with water during times of high evaporative demand. Different cultivars will react differently due to differences in transpiration control. The maintenance of an adequate water status will have an immense influence on canopy development and maintenance, and on normal and steady berry ripening. In this study it was found that not all the soil-root combinations can fulfil this satisfactorily. Thus, the grapevine balance determined by the combination of the soil-root-canopy complex and the influence of management techniques is extremely important for the favouring of a good canopy:root system ratio, a functional canopy throughout the season and a steady berry ripening curve.

<p>Economics is about the management of scare resources. In agricultural production, water stress and excess heat are the main constraints. The three essays of this dissertation try to improve our understandings of how climate and water resources interact with agricultural markets, and how global changes in agricultural markets may affect water resources. I construct empirical and simulation models to explain the interplay between agriculture and water. These models integrate economic theories with environmental sciences to analyze the hydroclimatic and economic information at different geospatial scales in a changing climate. </p> <p>In the first essay, I illustrate how irrigation, as a potential adaptation channel, can reduce the volatility of crop yields and year-on-year variations caused by the projected heat stress. This work includes estimation of yield response to climate variation for irrigated and rainfed crops; and global projections of change in the mean and the variation of crop yields. I use my estimated response function to project future yield variations using NASA NEX-GDDP climate data. I show that the impact of heat stress on rainfed corn is around twice as big as irrigated practices. </p> <p>In the second essay, I establish a framework for estimating the value of soil moisture for rainfed production. This framework is an extension of Schlenker and Roberts (2009) model enabled by the detailed soil moisture information available from the Water Balance Model (WBM). An important contribution is the introduction of a cumulative yield production function considering the daily interaction of heat and soil moisture. I use this framework to investigate the impacts of soil moisture on corn yields in the United States. However, this framework can be used for the valuation of other ecosystem services at daily basis.</p> <p>In the third essay, I have constructed a model that explains how the global market economy interacts with local land and water resources. This helps us to broaden the scope of global to local analysis of systems sustainability. I have employed SIMPLE-G-W (a Simplified International Model of agricultural Prices, Land use, and the Environment- Gridded Water version) to explain the reallocation across regions. The model is based on a cost minimization behavior for irrigation technology choice for around 75,000 grid cells in the United States constrained by water rights, water availability, and quasi-irreversibility of groundwater supply. This model is used to examine the vulnerability of US land and water resources from global changes.</p>

Speciale. / Haves kun i elektronisk udg.

La sfida nel 21esimo secolo è quella di fornire cibo e energia ad un mondo in continua crescita demografica e allo stesso tempo conservare l’ambiente. In questa tesi uno scenario alternativo di uso del suolo per la produzione di bioenergia è stato testato: le fasce tampone bioenergetiche. Considerate le problematiche ambientali legate al trilemma “cibo-energia-ambiente”, la struttura del Millennium Ecosystem Assessment sui servizi ecosistemici (SE) fornisce l’opportunità di esaminare l’impatto ambientale di questo nuovo scenario bioenergetico. In questa tesi ho mirato a determinare in che misura le colture bioenergetiche poliennali influenzino la fornitura multipla di SE quando coltivate come fasce tampone. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, ho combinato una revisione sistematica della letteratura sui SE forniti da colture energetiche poliennali (CEP) con una prova sperimentale su fasce tampone bioenergetiche. Applicando una metodologia di attribuzione di punteggi agli impatti sui SE estratti dal materiale bibliografico raccolto, ho mostrato come coltivando le CEP lungo i margini dei campi coltivati esista una grande opportunità per sostenere la fornitura multipla di SE. La coltivazione delle CEP come fasce tampone adiacenti a campi agricoli può migliorare i SE di regolazione del clima, dell’acqua e della biodiversità, sostenere la salute del suolo e fornire biomassa dedicata alla produzione di bioenergia. Al contrario, la conversione di margini di campo di prati stabili ha mostrato un impatto netto negativo sulla fornitura multipla di SE. Tuttavia, due sono i principali svantaggi che sono stati individuati relativamente alla creazione e alla gestione delle fasce tampone bioenergetiche. Primo, diversi sono i fattori sito-specifici di tipo idro-pedologico lungo i margini dei campi che devono essere tenuti in considerazione poiché possono avere un impatto negativo sull’affrancamento delle colture e la loro produttività a medio-lungo termine. Secondo, riguardo la catena di approvvigionamento della biomassa, uno spazio di lavoro limitato per le macchine agricole è stato riconosciuto come principale inconveniente per le fasce tampone bioenergetiche rispetto alle CEP coltivate in pieno campo. Questo limite logistico di natura spaziale può inevitabilmente incrementare i tempi e le operazioni di taglio e raccolta della biomassa e quindi in ultima il consumo di combustili fossili. Grazie ad una prova sperimentale su fasce tampone bioenergetiche condotta in un terreno sabbioso-limoso con falda acquifera poco profonda contaminata da nitrati di origine agricola, si è dimostrato come fasce tampone coltivate con miscanto e salice siano in grado di intercettare e rimuovere i nitrati in falda (>60%) tanto quanto fasce tampone con specie avventizie. CEP come miscanto e salice, grazie ai loro apparati radicali profondi, hanno mostrato essere in grado di promuovere delle relazioni pianta-suolo-microorganismi lungo l’intero profilo del suolo utili ai fini ambientali delle fasce tampone bioenergetiche. Infatti, negli strati più profondi, una maggiore biomassa radicale ha portato le CEP a superare le specie avventizie in termini di rimozione biologica dei nitrati dal suolo e mitigazione potenziale dei gas serra. Inoltre, i risultati relativi alla produzione di biomassa e le asportazioni di N legata alla fase di raccolta hanno confermato ulteriormente come la coltivazione di CEP lungo i corsi d’acqua sia una strategia win-win: produzione di biomassa e protezione dell’ambiente. In conclusione, il potenziale rivelato dalle CEP in termini di fornitura multipla di SE suggerisce che la loro coltivazione, come elementi paesaggistici perenni in posizioni strategiche all'interno di paesaggio agricolo, è un'opzione promettente per promuovere l'intensificazione ecologicamente sostenibile degli agroecosistemi. / The 21st century will challenge agriculture to feed and fuel a growing world while conserving the environment. In this thesis an alternative bioenergy land use scenario to the conversion of marginal land has been tested: the bioenergy buffers. Given the environmental issues related to “food-energy-environment” trilemma, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework on ES provides an opportunity to examine the environmental impacts of this new bioenergy land use scenario. In this thesis I aimed to determine to what extent do the perennial bioenergy crops affect the delivery of multiple ES when cultivated as bioenergy buffers. To reach this aim, I combined a systematic revision of literature on ES provided by perennial bioenergy crops with a field experiment on bioenergy buffers. Applying an impact scoring methodology to the effects on ES extracted from literature, I showed that, cultivating perennial bioenergy crops along field margins of former croplands offer a great opportunity to sustain the provision of multiple ES. The cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops on field margins can improve climate, biodiversity and water regulation services, sustain soil health and provide biomass for energetic purposes. On the contrary, grassland conversion showed a net negative impact on multiple ES provision. Nevertheless, I found two main shortcomings related to bioenergy buffers establishment and management. First, several site-specific factors along field margins must be taken into account, because they can affect crop establishment and buffers long-term productivity. Second, regarding to biomass supply chain, a limited working space for the farm machinery operations has been recognized as the main disadvantages of bioenergy buffers compared to large-scale bioenergy plantations. This spatial logistics constraint may inevitably increase harvest and collection operation times and fossil fuel consumption. Conducting a field experiment with bioenergy buffers in a nitrate-enriched shallow groundwater, I showed that miscanthus and willow buffers are able to efficiently intercept and remove from groundwater the incoming NO3-N as much as buffer strips with spontaneous species. Yet, due to their deep rooting systems, bioenergy buffers promote significant plant-microbial linkages along the soil profile. At deeper soil layers, a higher fine root biomass led perennial bioenergy crops to outperform patches of adventitious vegetation in terms of biological N removal from soil and belowground GHG mitigation potential. The results on biomass production and N removal via harvesting further confirmed that the cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops along watercourses is an effective win-win strategy: biomass production and protection of the environment. In conclusion, the revealed potential of perennial bioenergy crops on multiple ES provision implies that their cultivation as perennial landscape elements in strategic locations within landscape is a promising option to promote the ecological sustainable intensification of agroecosystems.