WATERSTEM | Unraveling interactions between water and carbon cycles during drought and their impact on water resources and forest and grassland ecosystems in the Mediterranean climate
Referente scientifico
Daniele Penna (Unifi), Christian Massari
Gruppo di lavoro
WP200) EXPERIMENTAL FIELD ANALYSIS
Partner del progetto
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica (CNR - IRPI)
University of Campania (Luigi Vanvitelli)
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per la Bioeconomia (CNR - IBE)
Principali obiettivi
Migliorare la comprensione della risposta della zona critica allo stress idrico e delle retroazioni che collegano la siccità, l'approvvigionamento idrico a scala di bacino e la risposta della vegetazione specie-specifica;
2. individuare l'organizzazione dinamica emergente della vegetazione e dell'acqua del suolo a scala di bacino e il suo impatto sul deficit di deflusso.
3. migliorare la caratterizzazione della siccità idrologica, andando oltre gli indici di siccità puramente meteorologici e i modelli idrologici;
4. progredire nella modellazione dei flussi di traspirazione durante la siccità;
5. comprendere meglio l'impatto della siccità sulle risorse idriche e sulla salute degli ecosistemi forestali e di prateria, in relazione alla mortalità della vegetazione e alla capacità degli ecosistemi naturali di immagazzinare carbonio durante la siccità.
6. definire i principi operativi per ottenere una gestione integrata delle risorse idriche e degli ecosistemi naturali durante la siccità.
Abstract
Mediterranean mountainous basins provide critical water supply and ecosystem services, yet these environments are increasingly at risk due to anthropogenic stressors and competition for water across urban, agricultural and environmental demands. On the top of this, future climate projections suggest a drier and warmer Mediterranean with large increases in the frequency, duration, and severity of hydrological droughts (i.e., runoff and groundwater levels below than normal) with serious consequences for the management of water resources and natural ecosystems.
In spite of the recent progress in land surface monitoring, current drought estimation in widely used operational products still largely relies on poorly parameterized potential evapotranspiration, in combination with simple hydrological bucket models (e.g., drought indices) which have shown to lead to questionable results.
As hydrological systems are intrinsically intertwined with climatological and ecological systems, the propagation of meteorological droughts (i.e., precipitation below than normal and higher temperatures) through them is modulated by a variety of mechanisms which are linked to carbon and water cycle interactions and specifically to how different plant species i) access subsurface water storages and ii) respond to water stress, high CO2 and high evaporative demand. Ignoring the parameterization of these mechanisms is often the norm in state-of-the-art land surface and hydrological models and impacts water balance closure via incorrect representation of transpiration leading to uncertainties in hydrological drought prediction.
The ultimate goal of WATERSTEM is to unravel the interactions between carbon and water cycles as to understand the modulating effect of the vegetation on water-supply deficit (as opposed to the more frequently addressed meteorological drought) and its impact on water resources and natural ecosystems in Mediterranean climates. The work plan will focus on six Mediterranean mountainous basins and will employ a novel combination of field monitoring (water stable isotopes, tree ring analysis and geophysical measurements), remote sensing, data assimilation and ecohydrological models. WATERSTEM will develop a multidisciplinary and novel conceptual framework that will be used to translate the acquired scientific knowledge into practices to support water resources and silvopasture management across a variety of Mediterranean climates and physiographic settings.
This is the core research of WATERSTEM, which is intimately coupled to the concept of Critical Zone (CZ, the Earth's permeable near-surface layer from the top of the trees to the bottom of the groundwater, where rock, soil, water, air, and vegetation interact and sustain life) that is fundamental for understanding and predict: i) hydrological droughts, ii) episodes of vegetation mortality (e.g., forest dieback) and iii) whether natural ecosystems may become a source or sink of carbon during drought.
Azioni progettuali
(in grassetto quelle coordinate da DAGRI-UNIFI)
1) Water allocation and mixing conceptualizations in different ecohydrological compartments (T2.1 UNIFI).
2) Stable water isotope analysis of vegetation and tree ring analysis (T2.2 UNICAM).
3) Analysis of hydraulic water-soil-plants roots interactions (T2.3 UNISS).
4) Satellite-based data analysis (T2.4 UNITN-CNR).
Durata
Inizio: 2022
Conclusione: 2024
Ente finanziatore bando
Bando PRIN 2020, codice: 20202WF53Z, finanziato dal Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MIUR)
Beneficiari
Collegamenti
https://danielepenna.wixsite.com/redellapietra
Ultimo aggiornamento
10.06.2024