Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. II. A case study

✍ Scribed by P D’Odorico; F Laio; A Porporato; I Rodriguez-Iturbe

• Book ID: 104326815
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 556 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0309-1708
• DOI: 10.1016/s0309-1708(02)00095-7

✦ Synopsis

The nitrogen and carbon cycles in the broad-leafed savanna at Nylsvley (S. Africa) are modeled using the stochastic approach presented by Porporato et al. [Adv Water Res (this issue)]. An accurate representation of the hydrological mechanisms that control the nitrogen cycle at the daily time scale is shown to be necessary to capture the impact of the high-frequency variability of the soil moisture on the nitrogen and carbon dynamics. The fluctuations of the random precipitation forcing propagate to soil moisture, carbon, and nitrogen dynamics, giving rise to a gamut of fluctuations at different time scales. Long simulations are carried out to achieve a probabilistic characterization of the dynamics of the state variables under different rainfall regimes.