Effects of precipitation pulses on water and carbon dioxide fluxes in two semiarid ecosystems: measurement and modeling

Modeling of soil-water, -heat and -carbon (C) fluxes provides an important tool for predicting mass and energy transfers based on a hydraulic-, thermal- and C-mass balance approach. Model predictions were evaluated using measured data from two water-limited study sites, one pasture and one supporting an alfalfa crop, to indentify differences between these ecosystems. Soil water content, temperature, and evapotranspiration (ET) data were used to validate soil water dynamics components of a process-based numerical model. Soil surface CO2 efflux estimates (i.e., fluxes from soil respiration) were also made to estimate soil CO2 emissions. The results show that the Hydrus-1D numerical model can be parameterized to simulate the soil hydrodynamics and CO2 fluxes measured at both locations. Rainfall and irrigation events triggering increases in plant root and microbial respiration rates were simulated to recreate observed pulsed CO2 fluxes. There were distinct differences in ET and soil CO2 effluxes between the ecosystems and watering events significantly modified the fluxes. Differences in potential evapotranspiration and soil texture could help explain these discrepancies. The results demonstrate that numerical modeling can be a useful tool for estimating soil surface fluxes in calibrated ecosystems when micrometeorological methods may not be suitable.