0000000000684739
AUTHOR
Erkan Istanbulluoglu
An Ecohydrological Cellular Automata Model Investigation of Juniper Tree Encroachment in a Western North American Landscape
Woody plant encroachment over the past 140 years has substantially changed grasslands in western North American. We studied encroachment of western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis var. occidentalis) into a previously mixed shrubâgrassland site in central Oregon (USA) using a modified version of Cellular Automata TreeâGrassâShrub Simulator (CATGraSS) ecohydrological model. We developed simple algorithms to simulate three encroachment factors (grazing, fire frequency reduction, and seed dispersal by herbivores) in CATGraSS. Local ecohydrological dynamics represented by the model were first evaluated using satellite-derived leaf area index and measured evapotranspiration data. Reconstruc…
Climate change and Ecotone boundaries: Insights from a cellular automata ecohydrology model in a Mediterranean catchment with topography controlled vegetation patterns
Abstract Regions of vegetation transitions (ecotones) are known to be highly sensitive to climate fluctuations. In this study, the Cellular-Automata Tree Grass Shrub Simulator (CATGraSS) has been modified, calibrated and used with downscaled future climate scenarios to examine the role of climate change on vegetation patterns in a steep mountainous catchment (1.3 km2) located in Sicily, Italy. In the catchment, north-facing slopes are mostly covered by trees and grass, and south-facing slopes by Indian Fig opuntia and grass, with grasses dominating as elevation grows. CATGraSS simulates solar radiation, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture in space and time. Each model cell can hold a sing…
Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective
Publisher's version (útgefin grein)
Mechanisms of shrub encroachment into Northern Chihuahuan Desert grasslands and impacts of climate change investigated using a cellular automata model
Arid and semiarid grasslands of southwestern North America have changed dramatically over the last 150 years as a result of woody plant encroachment. Overgrazing, reduced fire frequency, and climate change are known drivers of woody plant encroachment into grasslands. In this study, relatively sim- ple algorithms for encroachment factors (i.e., grazing, grassland fires, and seed dispersal by grazers) are proposed and implemented in the ecohydrological Cellular-Automata Tree Grass Shrub Simulator (CAT- GraSS). CATGraSS is used in a 7.3 km 2 rectangular domain located in central New Mexico along a zone of grassland to shrubland transition, where shrub encroachment is currently active. CATGraS…
Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective
This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-…
Modelling the shrub encroachment in a grassland with a Cellular Automata Model
Abstract. Arid and semi-arid grasslands of southwestern North America have changed dramatically over the last 150 years as a result of shrub encroachment, i.e. the increase in density, cover and biomass of indigenous shrubby plants in grasslands. Numerous studies have documented the expansion of shrublands in the southwestern American grasslands; in particular shrub encroachment has occurred strongly in part of the northern Chihuahuan desert since 1860. This encroachment has been simulated using an ecohydrological Cellular Automata model, CATGraSS. It is a spatially distributed model driven by spatially explicit irradiance and runs on a fine-resolution gridded domain. Plant competition is m…
Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective
This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-…
The role of vegetation on gully erosion stabilization at a severely degraded landscape: A case study from Calhoun Experimental Critical Zone Observatory
Abstract Gully erosion was evidence of land degradation in the southern Piedmont, site of the Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory (CCZO), during the cotton farming era. Understanding of the underlying gully erosion processes is essential to develop gully erosion models that could be useful in assessing the effectiveness of remedial and soil erosion control measures such as gully backfilling, revegetation, and terracing. Development and validation of process-based gully erosion models is difficult because observations of the formation and progression of gullies are limited. In this study, analytic formulations of the two dominant gullying processes, namely, plunge pool erosion and slab failure…
tRIBS-Erosion: A parsimonious physically-based model for studying catchment hydro-geomorphic response
Our goal is to develop a model capable to discern the response of a watershed to different erosion mechanisms. We propose a framework that integrates a geomorphic component into the physically-based and spatially distributed TIN-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS) model. The coupled model simulates main erosive processes of hillslopes (raindrop impact detachment, overland flow entrainment, and diffusive processes) and channel (erosion and deposition due to the action of water flow). In addition to the spatially distributed, dynamic hydrologic variables, the model computes the sediment transport discharge and changes in elevation, which feedback to hydrological dynamics throug…