DIVE_WATER

Controls of plant biodiversity on water flux partitioning in grassland ecosystems

Context

Studying the effects of plant diversity on ecosystem water fluxes is a crucial aspect of our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the response of ecosystems to global change as well as the direction and magnitude of potential feedback effects of ecosystems on the hydrological cycle and the atmosphere.

Objectives

The controls of plant diversity (i.e., species richness and functional group richness) on ecosystem water fluxes, their partitioning into soil evaporation and transpiration as well as plant water uptake patterns will be assessed in grassland ecosystems with the following objectives:

• to quantify water losses from grassland ecosystems of varying plant diversity to the atmosphere (evapotranspiration fluxes);
• to partition the evapotranspiration flux into its soil evaporative and vegetation transpiration components;
• to identify the environmental constraints of plant water sources as a function of plant diversity.