Temporal variation of soil moisture over the Wuding River Basin assessed with an eco-hydrological model, in-situ observations and remote sensing
Abstract. For integrative management of soil and water in the Wuding River basin, Loess plateau, China, where severe soil erosion damages are incurred, the ecohydrological behavior of the region is needed to be explored. In this study we focus on the evolution of soil moisture (SM) in the basin. Since there are only twelve years in-situ SM measurements available at two stations from 1992 to 2004, an eco-hydrological processes-based model (VIP, Vegetation Interface Processes model) is employed to simulate the long-term SM, evapotranspiration (ET), vegetation cover and production variation from 1956 to 2004, for the mechanical analysis of SM change. In-situ SM observations and a remotely sensed SM dataset retrieved by the Vienna University of Technology are used to validate the model. The results show that the model is able to capture seasonal SM variations. The seasonal pattern, multi-year variation, standard deviation and CV (coefficient of the variation) of SM at the daily, monthly and annual scale are well explained by the climatic and ecological factors such as precipitation, temperature, net radiation, evapotranspiration, and Leaf Area Index (LAI, denoted as LAI). The annual and inter-annual variability of SM is the lowest comparing with that for other 11-ecohydrological variables. The trend analysis shows that SM is in decreasing tendency at ∝=0.01 level of significance. Its significance is lower than that of runoff and that of temperature (∝=0.001), whereas higher than that of precipitation (∝=0.1). The products of these long-term SM data aim to help integrative management of soil and water resources.