Parameters affecting water vapor adsorption by the soil under semi-arid climatic conditions

Water vapor adsorption by the soil in Mediterranean ecosystems is very important to plant growth, We hypothesized that relative air humidity, soil texture, soil water content, and soil surface conditions affect water vapor adsorption. These factors were studied in four areas in Greece with semi-arid climatic conditions on four soils classified as Xerochrept. The study was conducted on hilly areas with various physiographic and microclimatic conditions greatly affecting daily fluctuations of air humidity. Time domain reflectometers (TDR) continuously monitored soil water content at depths 5, 10 and 25 cm. Rainfall, open pan water evaporation, air temperature, and relative air humidity were measured every 40 s, averaged. and recorded on data loggers every hour. Two weighing lysimeters were used to confirm soil water data measured by TDR-electrodes.status: publishe

Integrating Landscape Ecology and Geoinformatics to Decipher Landscape Dynamics for Regional Planning

We used remote sensing and GIS in conjunction with multivariate statistical methods to: (i) quantify landscape composition (land cover types) and configuration (patch density, diversity, fractal dimension, contagion) for five coastal watersheds of Kalloni gulf, Lesvos Island, Greece, in 1945, 1960, 1971, 1990 and 2002/2003, (ii) evaluate the relative importance of physical (slope, geologic substrate, stream order) and human (road network, population density) variables on landscape composition and configuration, and (iii) characterize processes that led to land cover changes through land cover transitions between these five successive periods in time. Distributions of land cover types did not differ among the five time periods at the five watersheds studied because the largest cumulative changes between 1945 and 2002/2003 did not take place at dominant land cover types. Landscape composition related primarily to the physical attributes of the landscape. Nevertheless, increase in population density and the road network were found to increase heterogeneity of the landscape mosaic (patchiness), complexity of patch shape (fractal dimension), and patch disaggregation (contagion). Increase in road network was also found to increase landscape diversity due to the creation of new patches. The main processes involved in land cover changes were plough-land abandonment and ecological succession. Landscape dynamics during the last 50 years corroborate the ecotouristic-agrotouristic model for regional development to reverse trends in agricultural land abandonment and human population decline and when combined with hypothetical regulatory approaches could predict how this landscape could develop in the future, thus, providing a valuable tool to regional planning