Tractor-trailer truckslin e up along a red and muddy earthen road. Large vinyl tarpaulins secured by ropes cover the open-topped hoppers of each one. Truck drivers hang out and prepare simple meals using stoves and kitchen utensils contained in a compact box built into the side of the truck cab. It’s early March, still the middle of a lush and highly predictable rainy season. Th e trucks wait for their turn and then enter a large modern compound with a football fi eld–sized building where they are loaded with recently harvested and dried soybeans and weighed.
Soil moisture depletion under simulated drought in the Amazon: impacts on deep root uptake
Soil moisture depletion under simulated drought in the Amazon: impacts on deep root uptake
Deep root water uptake in tropical Amazonian forests has been a major discovery during the last 15 yr. However, the effects of extended droughts, which may increase with climate change, on deep soil moisture utilization remain uncertain. The current study utilized a 1999–2005 record of volumetric water content (VWC) under a throughfall exclusion experiment to calibrate a one-dimensional model of the hydrologic system to estimate VWC, and to quantify the rate of root uptake through 11.5 m of soil.