Detecting soil moisture pulses and associated vegetation response in a southern Arizona watershed using SMAP and MODIS

Abstract:

In arid and semiarid ecosystems, rainfall pulses and associated vegetation responses play a crucial role in ecosystem and hydrologic functioning. While rainfall pulses are generally correlated with increased photosynthetic activity, the effect of these rainfall pulses in the context of persistent drought is unclear. Rainfall events during drought can lead to an overall reduction in primary productivity due to reduced soil infiltration and increased erosion. To assess the effective rainfall available for initiating biological processes, measurements of soil moisture are necessary. Rainfall pulses in drylands are generally localized in time and space making them difficult to detect remotely. Our objective was to determine whether space-based observations of soil moisture have the necessary spatial and temporal resolution to detect soil moisture pulses resulting from rain events in the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in southern Arizona. Using pre-beta-release soil moisture observations from the newly launched NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, we examined the effects of rainfall pulses on soil moisture over the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed from April to July 2015. To assess whether soil moisture pulses were associated with increased vegetation production, we monitored increases in vegetation greenness using the NASA MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) following increases in soil moisture. Regional-scale results were supported with local-scale in situ measurements of soil moisture, vegetation greenness from phenocams, precipitation and Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) associated with two eddy covariance flux towers at WGEW. In conclusion, SMAP observations have the potential to detect large rainfall pulses at the 9 km resolution, and the associated soil moisture pulses can result in increased EVI at the watershed scale. These results contribute to our understanding of the ecosystem and hydrologic functioning of dryland ecosystems.