Like farmland in Australia, native forests struggle with drought and flooding, so future management decisions need more sophisticated systems to monitor and manage their water needs.
Like farmland in Australia, native forests struggle with drought and flooding, so future management decisions need more sophisticated systems to monitor and manage their water needs.
A new study led by Flinders University aims to provide a good estimate of water used by trees and plants and bushes under the treetops (or in the forest ‘understorey’) to help improve management of native woodlands.
Researchers tested an advanced way to measure evapo-transpiration (ET) patterns in understorey (compared to canopy) vegetation at two different rainfall locations in South Australia to help develop better water and woodland management decision-making in future.
ET returns water from the soil and plants into the atmosphere and is the major component of terrestrial water balance, explains Professor of Environmental Science and Hydrology Huade Guan, from the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training at Flinders University.
Read more at Flinders University
Image: A line across the trees shows the flood highwater mark at Bookpurnong in South Australia's Riverland region in 2022-23. (Credit: Flinders University)
