Browsing by Subject "ecohydrology"
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Item Dynamics of water use and responses to herbivory in the invasive reed, Arundo donax (L.)(2010-07-14) Watts, David A.The first objective of this study was to investigate the role of an invasive grass species, Arundo donax (L.), on the hydrologic cycle. At a site on the Rio Grande in South Texas, we measured the gas exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapor at the leaf scale and structural characteristics, such as leaf area and shoot density, at the stand scale. In order to assess the effect of water availability, this study was conducted along transects perpendicular to the edge of the river along a potential moisture gradient. The second objective was to quantify the effect of two herbivores, an armored scale, Rhizaspidiotus donacis (Leonardi), and a stem-galling wasp, Tetramesa romana (Walker),on the photosynthetic and transpiration rates of A. donax. Leaf gas exchange measurements were made to determine the direction and magnitude of the effect on physiological processes and by what mechanisms any effects arose. Stands of A. donax used approximately 9.1 ? 1.1 mm of water per day. This rate of water use was at the high end of the spectrum for plants. The major controls on stand scale transpiration were evaporative demand, leaf area index, and water availability. During two summer seasons, stand scale transpiration varied greatly, following the pattern of variability in precipitation, suggesting that recent rainfall constituted a significant proportion of the water taken up by this species. Herbivory by a stem-galling wasp and a sap-feeding scale, both separately and together, reduced the rates of leaf scale physiological processes in A. donax. The efficacy of the wasp was density dependent, and this herbivore reduced the carboxylation rate of Rubisco. The effect of the scale took approximately five months to manifest, which coincided with generation time. Scale reduced photosynthesis by decreasing the maximum rate of electron transport. When the two insects were both present, the effect of their herbivory seemed to be additive. These results will assist the responsible management agencies in evaluating the propriety of using one or both of the insect herbivores as biological control agents.Item GPR Method for the Detection and Characterization of Fractures and Karst Features: Polarimetry, Attribute Extraction, Inverse Modeling and Data Mining Techniques(2011-02-22) Sassen, Douglas SpencerThe presence of fractures, joints and karst features within rock strongly influence the hydraulic and mechanical behavior of a rock mass, and there is a strong desire to characterize these features in a noninvasive manner, such as by using ground penetrating radar (GPR). These features can alter the incident waveform and polarization of the GPR signal depending on the aperture, fill and orientation of the features. The GPR methods developed here focus on changes in waveform, polarization or texture that can improve the detection and discrimination of these features within rock bodies. These new methods are utilized to better understand the interaction of an invasive shrub, Juniperus ashei, with subsurface flow conduits at an ecohydrologic experimentation plot situated on the limestone of the Edwards Aquifer, central Texas. First, a coherency algorithm is developed for polarimetric GPR that uses the largest eigenvalue of a scattering matrix in the calculation of coherence. This coherency is sensitive to waveshape and unbiased by the polarization of the GPR antennas, and it shows improvement over scalar coherency in detection of possible conduits in the plot data. Second, a method is described for full-waveform inversion of transmission data to quantitatively determine fracture aperture and electromagnetic properties of the fill, based on a thin-layer model. This inversion method is validated on synthetic data, and the results from field data at the experimentation plot show consistency with the reflection data. Finally, growing hierarchical self-organizing maps (GHSOM) are applied to the GPR data to discover new patterns indicative of subsurface features, without representative examples. The GHSOMs are able to distinguish patterns indicating soil filled cavities within the limestone. Using these methods, locations of soil filled cavities and the dominant flow conduits were indentified. This information helps to reconcile previous hydrologic experiments conducted at the site. Additionally, the GPR and hydrologic experiments suggests that Juniperus ashei significantly impacts infiltration by redirecting flow towards its roots occupying conduits and soil bodies within the rock. This research demonstrates that GPR provides a noninvasive tool that can improve future subsurface experimentation.Item Runoff characteristics and the influence of land cover in drylands of western Texas(2009-06-02) Huang, YunIn dryland regions, where water is a limited resource, land use/land cover has undergone and continues to undergo significant change mainly due to human activities. The nature of runoff from dryland regions and the influence of land use/land cover change are largely not quantified. The objective of this study is to examine runoff dynamics and the influence of land cover in drylands of western Texas across multiple spatial and temporal scales. The study consists of four major components: (1) an experimental study at Honey Creek upland catchment (19 ha) to assess vegetation treatment effects on runoff by hydrometric and isotopic methods; (2) a hydrochemical evaluation of hydrologic linkage between the upland and bottomland at the second-order Honey Creek watershed; (3) a detailed precipitation-streamflow analysis at North Concho River basin to assess long-term and large-scale precipitation-streamflowvegetation dynamics; and (4) a comparison of streamflow in North, Middle, and South Concho River basins and a regional streamflow trend analysis for the entire western Texas. The study indicates runoff production in the drylands of western Texas is dominated by a few large runoff-producing events. The small catchment experiment indicated that runoff increased about 40 mm per year when 60% of woody plants were removed. This effect may relate to the presence of a baseflow component, but was not verified in regional trend analysis for the Edwards Plateau region where most rivers are spring-fed. The decrease in streamflow in North Concho River basin after the 1950's is in large part related to the enhanced infiltration capacity from reduced grazing pressure and improved vegetation cover. Regional streamflow trend analysis suggests some headwater areas outside the Edwards Plateau region experienced patterns of streamflow change similar to those in North Concho River basin, although artificial impoundments complicated the analysis. The study has broader application in ecohydrological research beyond specific geographic areas and specific vegetation types when evaluating the impact of ecosystem structure change on hydrology and water resources.