Semiarid regions occupy about 16% of the global land area and are prevalent both in China and Israel. Because of their large area, and despite severe water limitations, semiarid regions are of high importance to the global carbon balance, partly because they enable tree production and relatively high rates of carbon sequestration at the world’s dry margin of forest distribution. There are major knowledge gaps in the way of soil water regulation of the carbon cycle, mainly because of the frequent temporal mismatch of ecohydrological and biogeochemical processes, and because of the lack of ability to generalize across semiarid zones differing in climate seasonality. The overarching objective of this project is to assess the relationship between seasonally fluctuating water stores and carbon fluxes in semiarid forests characterized by either summer or winter rains. This study will make use of the contrasting climatic seasonality of the semiarid regions of China (cold and dry winter; mainly summer rains) and Israel (mild and moist winter; hot and rainless summer), providing an ideal setup for comparative studies on soil buffers of water supply for carbon sequestration in dry forests. This study will provide insights into the intricate relationships between precipitation, soil water, and ecosystem water and carbon fluxes, including legacy effects of soil drought vs. available soil water on water usage of forests and the consequences for carbon sequestration.

Funding: NSFC-ISF

Collaborators: Hongyan Liu, Peking University, Beijing, China, Pengtao Yu, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China,  Dan Yakir, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, Yagil Osem, Agricultural Research Organization, Rishon Letzion, Israel, and Tarin Paz Kagan, Agricultural Research Organization, Rishon Letzion, Israel.

Co-worker: Chongyang Xu (postdoc student)