Interactive Effect of Meteorological Drought and Vegetation Types on Root Zone Soil Moisture and Runoff in Rangeland Watersheds

Abstract

The meteorological droughts in the climate transition zone of the Great Plains of the USA are projected to intensify, potentially leading to major shifts in water provisioning services in rangelands. To understand how meteorological drought interacts with vegetation to regulate runoff response, we collected precipitation, root zone soil moisture, and runoff data from experimental grassland and juniper (Juniperus virginiana L., redcedar) woodland watersheds for five years encompassing a drought year to pluvial year cycle. We contrasted the frequency distribution of precipitation intensities and applied wavelet analysis to reveal the coherence between precipitation and root zone soil moisture patterns. Compared with grassland, the root zone soil moisture in woodland had a narrower range, with the peak frequency skewed to a lower soil moisture content. The conversion of herbaceous vegetation to evergreen juniper woodland results in a delayed response of runoff to precipitation due to reduced antecedent soil moisture. The reduction of streamflow from the woodland watershed was greater in the normal and pluvial years than in the drought year. Thus, conversion from grassland to evergreen woody vegetation prolongs the impact of meteorological drought on soil moisture and streamflow. Restoring prairie that is heavily encroached by woody species may serve as an adaptive measure to mitigate the climate change impact on water resources and other ecosystem services provided by rangeland.