The Contribution of Transpiration to Precipitation Over African Watersheds.

The redistribution of biological (transpiration) and non-biological (interception loss, soil evaporation) fluxes of terrestrial evaporation via atmospheric circulation and precipitation is an important Earth system process. In vegetated ecosystems, transpiration dominates terrestrial evaporation and is thought to be crucial for regional moisture recycling and ecosystem functioning. However, the spatial and temporal variability in the dependency of precipitation on transpiration remains understudied, particularly in sparsely sampled regions like Africa. Here, we investigate how biological and non-biological sources of evaporation in Africa contribute to rainfall over the major watersheds in the continent. Our study is based on simulated atmospheric moisture trajectories derived from the Lagrangian model FLEXPART, driven by 1° resolution reanalysis data over 1981-2016. Using daily satellite-based fractions of transpiration over terrestrial evaporation, we isolate the contribution of vegetation to monthly rainfall. Furthermore, we highlight two watersheds (Congo and Senegal) for which we explore intra- and interannual variability of different precipitation sources, and where we find contrasting patterns of vegetation-sourced precipitation within and between years. Overall, our results show that almost 50% of the annual rainfall in Africa originates from transpiration, although the variability between watersheds is large (5%-68%). We conclude that, considering the current and projected patterns of land use change in Africa, a better understanding of the implications for continental-scale water availability is needed.

The environmental impacts of river sand mining.

The demand for construction-grade sand is growing at a tremendous rate and the world is expected to run out of this resource by 2050. Construction-grade sand, hereafter referred to as 'sand', can be found in (former) aquatic environments, such as rivers and is a provisioning ecosystem service. Even under controlled circumstances, the practice of extracting the sand from the riverbed and -banks impacts the environment. Unfortunately, many countries lack sand mining regulation policies and in combination with a high demand, this results in indiscriminate and illegal mining. To create effective policies for sustainable extraction of river sand, there is a need for both qualitative and quantitative data on the effects of river sand mining. This paper brings together the effects of river sand mining on the physical, biological, chemical, and anthropogenic environment through a systematic literature review. The effects found are widespread and often cumulative. In the physical environment, the primary effects are riverbed widening and lowering. In the biological environment, the overarching effect is a reduced biodiversity and stretches from the aquatic and shoreline flora and fauna to the whole floodplain area. The effects on the chemical environment are a reduced water, air and soil quality through pollution. The effects on the anthropogenic environment comprise of damaged infrastructure, bad working circumstances for workers, limited access to water and agricultural losses. The findings of this research emphasize the complexity and cascading nature of the effects of river sand mining, as well as the severity and urgency of the problem. Based on the effects found and the four environments, a set of guidelines are proposed at the end of this paper to be used for global agenda making regarding sustainable sand extraction. Future research should prioritise quantifying the observed effects and developing science-based policies for sustainable mining.

Lime-rich and lime-poor coastal dunes: Natural blowout activity differs with sensitivity to high N deposition through differences in P availability to the vegetation.

In industrialized countries, biodiversity is threatened by high atmospheric N deposition. In coastal dunes, blowouts can mitigate this through deposition of fresh sand, but lime-rich and lime-poor dunes may differ in blowout activity. We studied natural blowout activity and explanatory factors in 2000 and 2014 in up to 51 sites along the Dutch coast, representative for other parts of Europe. We further analyzed plant and soil characteristics related to P nutrition in seven sites in 2019 and found that blowout activity was intrinsically linked to interactions between the geosphere, pedosphere and biosphere. Blowout activity was higher in lime-rich than in lime-poor dunes, especially in 2014. This difference could not be explained by wind velocity and only partly by position in the landscape, but was associated with pH, critical N load and rabbit density. At high pH, P availability to the vegetation was low. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) plant species thus predominated, which belong to the most characteristic dune plants and may provide rabbit food of better quality than nonmycorrhizal (NM) or ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) plants. Root biomass was also low at high pH, which may reduce cohesion of the sand and increase blowout activity, especially in areas with high rabbit density. At low pH, P availability increased, which favored NM and ErM rather than AM plants, and root biomass increased, which increased stability of the blowouts. As a restoration measure, (re)activation of blowouts may improve buffer capacity, characteristic biodiversity and conservation status of coastal dune grasslands. However, lime-poor dunes are more vulnerable to acidification, increase in P availability and blowout stabilization than lime-rich dunes. In extremely lime-poor dunes, it may even be better to let vegetation develop towards Dune heathlands, which are also EU priority habitats.

Litter quality and microtopography as key drivers to topsoil properties and understorey plant diversity in ancient broadleaved forests on decalcified marl.

In forest ecosystems, litter quality is a major driver for soil and understorey characteristics, but elevation, microtopography and subsoil properties may also be important. We tested the importance of each factor in two ancient mixed forests on decalcified marl, dominated by trees with different litter quality such as European hornbeam, with high-palatable litter, and beech, with low-palatable litter. We mapped elevation, differences in local height (microtopography), tree distribution and understorey cover on slopes ranging from crest to bottom, and sampled 200 7 × 7 m grid cells for characteristics of litter input, understorey, topsoil and subsoil. In both forests, elevation decreased gradually, but microtopography showed irregular patterns of depressions and mounds of a few cm below or above average local height. Tree distribution was not affected by elevation or subsoil properties, but clearly by microtopography. Adult beech was abundant on local mounds, while hornbeam was more common in local depressions. Topsoil and understorey characteristics were mainly affected by litter quality (tree species dominance) and microtopography. Litter quality had separate effects from microtopography, but could reinforce this. High litter quality (hornbeam) and low local height both led to high earthworm activity, low litter mass, high erosion, impermeable clay layers close to the surface, high pH, high soil moisture and high diversity of the understorey. Low litter quality (beech) and high local height both led to low earthworm activity, high litter mass, low erosion, low pH, low soil moisture and low plant diversity. Beech and hornbeam may act as ecosystem engineers, which change habitat conditions and local hydrology, and make habitats more suitable to themselves, and/or unsuitable to the other. However, they also increased spatial complexity of the forest and length of the habitat gradient. This may increase forest biodiversity as a whole, but also resilience to prolonged wet or dry periods.

The impact of agricultural management on selected soil properties in citrus orchards in Eastern Spain: A comparison between conventional and organic citrus orchards with drip and flood irrigation.

The agricultural management of citrus orchards is changing from flood irrigated managed orchards to drip irrigated organic managed orchards. Eastern Spain is the oldest and largest European producer of citrus, and is representative of the environmental changes triggered by innovations in orchard management. In order to determine the impact of land management on different soil quality parameters, twelve citrus orchards sites were selected with different land and irrigation management techniques. Soil samples were taken at two depths, 0-2cm and 5-10cm for studying soil quality parameters under the different treatments. Half of the studied orchards were organically managed and the other six were conventionally managed, and for each of these six study sites three fields were flood irrigated plots and the other three drip irrigated systems. The outcome of the studied parameters was that soil organic matter (SOM) and aggregate stability were higher for organic farms. Bulk density and pH were only significantly different for organic farms when drip irrigation was applied in comparison with flooded plots. C/N ratio did not vary significantly for the four treatments. Although there are some points of discussion, this research shows that a combination of different management decisions leads to improvement of a couple of soil quality parameters. Organic management practices were found to be beneficial for soil quality, compared to conventional management for soils with comparable textures and applied irrigation water.