Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Abstract
NSF (EAR): 1954538: Collaborative Research: RUI: Hydrology of the vegetation on
vegetation: Comparison and scaling of rainfall interception and solute alteration by
common arboreal epiphytes
PI: Sybil G. Gotsch
For 1/3 of the land surface, the first process in the rainfall-to-discharge hydrologic flow path is
the partitioning of rain by forest canopies. Thus, the canopy ecohydrological processes
governing rainfall partitioning affect all down-gradient hydrological processes and related
biogeochemical activities (i.e., soil solution chemistry, fine root patterns, and soil microbial
community structure/function), resulting in >$40 million in annual statewide stormwater services,
supplying hundreds of kg of dissolved solutes ha-1 year-1 to soils, and mitigating regional
warming. Because of this importance, a substantial body of literature exists on hydrological
roles of leaves and bark in rainfall redistribution and chemical alteration. However, a major
canopy element has been overlooked: arboreal epiphytes. Not only are epiphytes ubiquitous
across forest ecosystems, they represent some of Earth’s most water-absorbent terrestrial
organisms: most lichens, bryophytes, and bromeliads can store > 1000% of their dry weight.
Excluding these organisms significantly impacts canopy water balances and related solute
exchanges. We propose to begin addressing this major knowledge gap in a southeastern US
forest that has a high biomass of 3 common types of epiphytes (lichens, ferns and bromeliads)
and existing data on leaf-and bark-rainfall interactions. Principal objectives are to: 1)
assess/compare storage, evaporation and drainage dynamics for these epiphytes; (2) evaluate
ecohydrological traits that underlie epiphyte’s water balance and determine their vulnerability to
projected climate changes; (3) quantify/compare epiphyte alterations to rainfall solute
characteristics; (4) scale findings to estimate relative stand-level influence of epiphytes on net
rainwater/solute fluxes.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/1/23 → 5/31/24 |
Funding
- Franklin and Marshall College: $40,411.00
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