Abstract
Abstract. We discuss a simplifed, conceptual model for the dynamics of the soil-vegetation system in drylands. The model considers the different dynamical processes taking place in vegetated and non-vegetated soil and it distinguishes between the upper soil layer, where rapid evaporation dominates, and the deeper root layer where only plant transpiration takes place. We explore the role of rainfall intermittency and of different plant colonization strategies, and discuss in detail the effect of two different vegetation feedbacks: reduced evaporation due to plant shading and increased infiltration in vegetated areas. The results of the analysis indicate that both temporal rainfall intermittency and the shading/infiltration feedbacks have a beneficial effect on vegetation. However, it turns out that in this model rainfall intermittency and vegetation feedbacks have almost a mutually exclusive role: whenever one of these two components is present, the addition of the other does not further affect vegetation dynamics in a significant way.
Highlights
Understanding the interplay of climate and biosphere is one of the intriguing open issues in Earth System Science
We explore the role of rainfall intermittency and of different plant colonization strategies, and discuss in detail the effect of two different vegetation feedbacks: reduced evaporation due to plant shading and increased infiltration in vegetated areas
The results of the analysis indicate that both temporal rainfall intermittency and the shading/infiltration feedbacks have a beneficial effect on vegetation
Summary
The network of feedbacks between vegetation, climate and soil is, in general, difficult to disentangle, and it is often helpful to study only a portion of the whole system. In such an exercise, simplified, conceptual models can be of much value to elucidate the basic mechanisms at work and identify rele-. Vegetation dynamics is described by an implicit-space approach, as discussed in the works of Levins (1969) and Tilman (1994) In this model, rainfall is the external input, either kept constant or assumed to be stochastic and intermittent in time, and we ignore the feedbacks of vegetation on atmospheric dynamics
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