Temporal heterogeneity of soil moisture under different vegetation types in Qilian Mountain, China

Field observations were conducted near the forest boundary in Qilian Mountain to test the differences in temporal variability of soil moisture between grassland, shrubland and forest habitats, and to examine the contributions of canopy rainfall interception and plant uptake to any observed differences. It was found that considerable differences of the temporal heterogeneity of soil moisture do exist between the three habitats. The coefficient of variance (CV) in soil moisture content at 5 cm depth was significantly higher in grassland and shrubland than in forest, while that at 20 cm was significantly higher in shrubland and forest than in grassland. High canopy rainfall interception of shrubs and intense soil moisture evaporation in grassland should be responsible for the higher temporal variability of soil moisture content at 5 cm depth in the two habitats, respectively, while the differences at 20 cm depths are most likely only due to the differences in canopy rainfall interception. Water uptakes provide little contribution to the differences in CVs of soil moisture at both 5 cm and 20 cm depths. It was also found that the CV at depth of 20 cm is significantly higher than that at depth of 5 cm, suggesting that the most active depth of soil moisture does not necessarily happen on the surface.