PERMANENCE OF WATER EFFECTIVENESS IN THE ROOT ZONE OF THE CAATINGA BIOME

Abstract

Soil is an important water compartment into a watershed scale, mainly due to its role in providing water to plants and to the influence of antecedent moisture on the runoff initiation. The aim of this research is to assess the permanence of water effectiveness in the soil under preserved-vegetation constraints in the Caatinga biome, in the semiarid northeastern Brazil. For this purpose, hourly soil moisture measurements were collected with TDR and analyzed between 2003 and 2010 for three soil-vegetation associations in the Aiuaba Experimental Basin. The results showed that in nine months per year soil moisture was below wilting point for two associations, whose soils are Chromic Luvisol and Haplic Lixisol (Abruptic). In the third association, where the shallow soil Lithic Leptosol prevails, water was found non-effective four months per year. A possible reason for the high water permanence in the shallowest soil is the percolation process, generating sub-surface flow, which barely occurs in the deeper soils. In situ observations indicates that the long period of soil moisture below the wilting point was not enough to avoid the blooming season of the Caatinga vegetation during the rainy periods. Indeed, after the beginning of each rainy season, there is a growth of dense green vegetation, regardless of the long period under water shortage.