El papel del agua sobre la biomasa vegetal en la zona semiárida con clima mediterráneo de chile

Abstract

The semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems of Chile sustain high demographic rates and maintain very important economies related to the environmental productivity, although they strongly depend on water availability. Nevertheless, studies carried out on wa-ter-limited environments and from an ecohydrological framework, are very scarce in the semi-arid areas of Chile. This study tries to define the role of water on herbaceous biomass growth using equipment which monitored some key variables concerning to the water cycle and biomass dynamics with a high temporal resolution. Results showed that between 57% and 93% of total variance in biomass dynamics could be explained using only three variables related to hydrological cycle, such as rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil water content. We concluded that a change in the water cycle of these areas could threat the productivity and maintenance of these ecosystems.