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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #98831
Title: DESERT ARROYO SOIL WATER STORAGE AND ITS EFFECTS ON SHRUB SPECIES

Author
item ATCHLEY, MICHAEL - NEW MEXICO STATE UNIV
item DE SOYZA, AMRITA - NEW MEXICO STATE UNIV
item Whitford, Walter

Submitted to: Journal of Arid Environments
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/27/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Much of the rain falling onto desert landscapes runs off the soil surface and is transported into drainage channels (arroyos) which transport water downslope. We investigated the hypothesis that some of this water may also be stored in the channel and become available to plants growing along the margins of the channel. The two sites we studied often flowed at different times, and we found more water in the soils of arroyo channels than in soils of the surrounding non-arroyo areas. The shrub species Apache plume behaved very differently at the two sites studied, perhaps because its physiology was mostly limited by nutrient availability. Desert willow did not respond to water flowing along the channel or to nutrients. Mesquite along arroyo margins often were doing more photosynthesis than were mesquite 30 m away from a channel, probably because of water stored in the channel.

Technical Abstract: Much of the rain falling onto desert landscapes runs off the soil surface and is channeled into arroyos which transport water downslope. Some water may also be stored and available to plants. The semi-riparian shrub Apache plume, Fallugia paradoxa, had very different photosynthetic but not transpiration rates at study sites along two arroyos, possibly because its gas-exchange physiology was only limited by nutrient availability. The obligate riparian shrub desert willow, Chilopsis linearis, was intermediate and neither soil water nor nutrient concentrations appeared to affect gas- exchange rates during the growing season. At one site, the semi-riparian shrub mesquite, Prosopis glandulosa, on arroyo margins had more soil water and higher rates of gas-exchange than mesquite at a distance greater than 30 m from the arroyo channels. There were large differences in the timing of flow events, soil water storage and gas-exchange between arroyos. Arroyos store transmission loss water in streambed sediments and this wate is used to maintain high rates of gas-exchange in some riparian species.