Field performance of the Walker Branch throughfall displacement experiment
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Div.
The authors are conducting a large-scale manipulative field experiments in an upland oak forest on the Walker Branch Watershed in eastern Tennessee USA to identify important ecosystem responses that might result from future precipitation changes. The manipulation of soil moisture is being implemented by a gravity-driven transfer of throughfall precipitation from one treatment plot to another. Throughfall is intercepted in {approx} 2,000 subcanopy troughs (0.3 x 5 m) suspended above the forest floor of the dry plots ({approx} 33% of the ground area is covered) and transferred by gravity flow across an ambient plot for subsequent distribution onto the wet treatment plot. Percent soil water is being monitored with time domain reflectometers at 310 sampling locations across the site. The experimental system is able to produce statistically significant differences in soil water content in years having both extremely dry and extremely wet conditions. Furthermore, comparisons of pre- and post-installation soil temperature measurements have documented the ability of the experimental design to produce these changes without changing the microclimate of the forest understory.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 41269
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410327--1; ON: DE95008677
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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