Smallholder farmers depend on healthy and productive crop yields to sustain their socio-economic ... more Smallholder farmers depend on healthy and productive crop yields to sustain their socio-economic status and ensure livelihood security. Advances in South African precision agriculture in the form of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide spatially explicit near-real-time information that can be used to assess crop dynamics and inform smallholder farmers. The use of UAVs with remote-sensing techniques allows for the acquisition of high spatial resolution data at various spatio-temporal planes, which is particularly useful at the scale of fields and farms. Specifically, crop chlorophyll content is assessed as it is one of the best known and reliable indicators of crop health, due to its biophysical pigment and biochemical processes that indicate plant productivity. In this regard, the study evaluated the utility of multispectral UAV imagery using the random forest machine learning algorithm to estimate the chlorophyll content of maize through the various growth stages. The results sh...
AFFILIATIONS: 1Centre for Water Resources Research, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environment... more AFFILIATIONS: 1Centre for Water Resources Research, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 2Discipline of Agrometeorology, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa 4Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
ABSTRACT Eddy covariance (EC) systems are expensive and not financially viable in a budget-restri... more ABSTRACT Eddy covariance (EC) systems are expensive and not financially viable in a budget-restricted hydrological monitoring network. The surface renewal (SR) method is a cheaper alternative that requires a reduced fetch, but is currently dependent on EC for calibration. SR methods not requiring calibration (surface renewal 2 (SR2) and surface renewal dissipation theory (SRDT)) have been used but are not widely tested over indigenous vegetation. The aim of this research was to test the SR approach as a viable alternative to EC for the estimation of sensible heat flux (H) over indigenous vegetation (Leucosidea sericea) in a montane catchment for unstable periods. For both summer (7 d) and winter (9 d) campaigns, the three SR methods showed a good relationship with the EC method for the estimation of H. Overall, the SRDT method was the most viable alternative to EC and produced acceptable estimates of H over an indigenous vegetation canopy in a montane catchment.
Determining maize water content variability is necessary for crop monitoring and in developing ea... more Determining maize water content variability is necessary for crop monitoring and in developing early warning systems to optimise agricultural production in smallholder farms. However, spatially explicit information on maize water content, particularly in Southern Africa, remains elementary due to the shortage of efficient and affordable primary sources of suitable spatial data at a local scale. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), equipped with light-weight multispectral sensors, provide spatially explicit, near-real-time information for determining the maize crop water status at farm scale. Therefore, this study evaluated the utility of UAV-derived multispectral imagery and machine learning techniques in estimating maize leaf water indicators: equivalent water thickness (EWT), fuel moisture content (FMC), and specific leaf area (SLA). The results illustrated that both NIR and red-edge derived spectral variables were critical in characterising the maize water indicators on smallholder f...
Rainfall and air temperature variability pose the greatest risk to environmental change. Past tre... more Rainfall and air temperature variability pose the greatest risk to environmental change. Past trends in rainfall and air temperature facilitate projecting future climate changes for informed policy responses. We used a combination of the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and observed data from 1968 to 2017 to assess changes in rainfall, moisture stress, and air temperature variability over time on bioclimatic regions of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, South Africa. Indicators used included consecutive dry days (CDDs), consecutive wet days (CWDs), very heavy rainfall days (R20), monthly maximum daily maximum air temperature (TXx), monthly minimum daily minimum air temperature (TNn), the total number of rainfall days, and monthly air temperature averages. Trends in rainfall and moisture stress are notable in different bioclimatic regions across the province. However, these trends are diverse, in general, and spatially different across and within the bioclimatic regions. Furt...
Climate change projections of increases in lightning activity are an added concern for lightning-... more Climate change projections of increases in lightning activity are an added concern for lightning-prone countries such as South Africa. South Africa’s high levels of poverty, lack of education, and awareness, as well as a poorly developed infrastructure, increase the vulnerability of rural communities to the threat of lightning. Despite the existence of national lightning networks, lightning alerts and warnings are not disseminated well to such rural communities. We therefore developed a community-based early warning system (EWS) to detect and disseminate lightning threats and alerts in a timely and comprehensible manner within Swayimane, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The system is composed of an electrical field meter and a lightning flash sensor with warnings disseminated via audible and visible alarms on site and with a remote server issuing short message services (SMSs) and email alerts. Twelve months of data (February 2018–February 2019) were utilized to evaluate the performance ...
Accurate and timely information on surface water quality and quantity is critical for various app... more Accurate and timely information on surface water quality and quantity is critical for various applications, including irrigation agriculture. In-field water quality and quantity data from unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAVs) could be useful in closing spatial data gaps through the generation of near-real-time, fine resolution, spatially explicit information required for water resources accounting. This study assessed the progress, opportunities, and challenges in mapping and modelling water quality and quantity using data from UAVs. To achieve this research objective, a systematic review was adopted. The results show modest progress in the utility of UAVs, especially in the global south. This could be attributed, in part, to high costs, a lack of relevant skills, and the regulations associated with drone procurement and operational costs. The progress is further compounded by a general lack of research focusing on UAV application in water resources monitoring and assessment. More ...
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an alternative to costly and time-consuming traditional metho... more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an alternative to costly and time-consuming traditional methods to improve agricultural water management and crop productivity through the acquisition, processing, and analyses of high-resolution spatial and temporal crop data at field scale. UAVs mounted with multispectral and thermal cameras facilitate the monitoring of crops throughout the crop growing cycle, allowing for timely detection and intervention in case of any anomalies. The use of UAVs in smallholder agriculture is poised to ensure food security at household level and improve agricultural water management in developing countries. This review synthesises the use of UAVs in smallholder agriculture in the smallholder agriculture sector in developing countries. The review highlights the role of UAV derived normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) in assessing crop health, evapotranspiration, water stress and disaster risk reduction. The focus is to provide more accurate statistics o...
The biomass allocation pattern of plants to shoots and roots is a key in the cycle of elements su... more The biomass allocation pattern of plants to shoots and roots is a key in the cycle of elements such as carbon, water and nutrients with, for instance, the greatest allocations to roots fostering the transfer of atmospheric carbon to soils through photosynthesis. Several studies have investigated the root to shoot ratio (R:S) biomass of existing crops but variation within a crop species constitutes an important information gap for selecting genotypes aiming for increasing soil carbon stocks for climate change mitigation and food security. The objectives of this study were to evaluate agronomic performance and quantify biomass production and allocation between roots and shoots, in response to different soil water levels to select promising genotypes for breeding. Field and greenhouse experiments were carried out using 100 genotypes including wheat and Triticale under drought‐stressed and non‐stressed conditions. The experiments were set‐up using a 10 × 10 alpha lattice design with two replications under water stress and non‐stress conditions. The following phenotypic traits were collected: number of days to heading (DTH), number of productive tillers per plant (NPT), plant height (PH), days to maturity (DTM), spike length (SL), kernels per spike (KPS), thousand kernel weight (TKW), root biomass (RB), shoot biomass (SB), root to shoot ratio (R:S) and grain yield (GY). There was significant (p < 0.05) variation for grain yield and biomass production because of genotypic variation. The highest grain yield of 247.3 g/m² was recorded in the genotype LM52 and the least was in genotype Sossognon with 30 g/m². Shoot biomass ranged from 830 g/m² (genotype Arenza) to 437 g/m² (LM57), whilst root biomass ranged between 603 g/m² for Triticale and 140 g/m² for LM15 across testing sites and water regimes. Triticale also recorded the highest R:S of 1.2, whilst the least was 0.30 for wheat genotype LM18. Overall, drought stress reduced total biomass production by 35% and R:S by 14%. Genotypic variation existed for all measured traits useful for improving drought tolerance, whilst the calculated R:S values can improve accuracy in estimating C sequestration potential of wheat. Wheat genotypes LM26, LM47, BW140, LM70, LM48, BW152, LM75, BW162, LM71 and BW141 were selected for further development based on their high total biomass production, grain yield potential and genetic diversity under drought stress.
In South Africa the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the c... more In South Africa the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the country's limited water resources. Tree water-use measurements have therefore become an important component of recent hydrological studies. It is difficult for government initiatives, such as the Working for Water (WfW) alien clearing programmes, to justify alien tree removal and implement rehabilitation unless a known hydrological benefit can be seen. Consequently water-use within a riparian forest along the Buffeljags river in the Western Cape of South Africa was monitored over a three year period. The site consisted of an indigenous stand of Western Cape afrotemperate forest adjacent to a large stand of introduced <i>Acacia mearnsii</i>. The heat ratio method was used to measure the water-use of a selection of representative indigenous species in the indigenous stand, a selection of…
In South Africa, the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the ... more In South Africa, the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the country's limited water resources. Tree water-use measurements have therefore become an important component of recent hydrological studies. It is difficult for South African government initiatives, such as the Working for Water (WfW) alien clearing program, to justify alien tree removal and implement rehabilitation unless hydrological benefits are known. Consequently, water use within a riparian forest along the Buffeljags River in the Western Cape of South Africa was monitored over a 3-year period. The site consisted of an indigenous stand of Western Cape afrotemperate forest adjacent to a large stand of introduced <i>Acacia mearnsii</i>. The heat ratio method of the heat pulse velocity sap flow technique was used to measure the sap flow of a selection of indigenous species in the indigenous stand, a selection of <i>A. mearnsii</i> trees in the alien stand an...
Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Science, 2016
Several hundred mine tailings dams occur in the Witwatersrand Basin Goldfields in central South A... more Several hundred mine tailings dams occur in the Witwatersrand Basin Goldfields in central South Africa. Seepage of acid mine drainage (AMD) from these unlined structures is widespread, and a variety of contaminants is released into soil and groundwater. The ‘Mine Woodlands Project’ is aimed at evaluating the use of high-density tree stands over surrounding contaminant plumes to limit the spread of contaminants through hydraulic control of groundwater and enhanced uptake or immobilisation of contaminants. The annual pattern of hourly sap flow in four contiguous Eucalyptus dunnii trees (aged three years) was followed over a full year in a species trial situated near Carltonville. The annual pattern of hourly sap flow was also recorded in four contiguous sample trees (aged four years) of the clonal hybrid E. grandis × E. camaldulensis (E. G×C) at another trial near Orkney. Both species showed high sap flow rates close to reference evaporation rates in response to summer rains. Both showed greatly reduced sap flow rates during the latter half of the dry winter season. Sap flow rates only recovered after the arrival of the first spring rains. Annual sap flow (E. dunnii, 673 mm; E. G×C, 767 mm) was similar to the recorded annual rainfall at each site (E. dunnii, 629 mm; E. G×C, 795 mm), and was substantially lower than total annual reference evaporation (E. dunnii, 1 273 mm; E. G×C, 1 330 mm). We conclude that the roots of both species are not yet deep enough to access the AMD-influenced groundwater, which lies at depths of 14 and 10 m below the ground at the Carltonville and Orkney sites, respectively. Despite prolonged water deficits, both species survived well and maintained sufficient vigour to permit the quick recovery of high transpiration rates in the following summer. This resilience is essential to hasten root growth and improve the chance of contact with groundwater plumes.
The contribution of hydrological research in South Africa in quantifying green water flows for im... more The contribution of hydrological research in South Africa in quantifying green water flows for improved Integrated Land and Water Resources Management is reviewed. Green water refers to water losses from land surfaces through transpiration (seen as a productive use) and evaporation from bare soil (seen as a non-productive use). In contrast, blue water flows refer to streamflow (surface water) and groundwater / aquifer recharge. Over the past 20 years, a number of methods have been used to quantify the green water and blue water flows. These include micrometeorological techniques (e.g. Bowen ratio energy balance, eddy covariance, surface renewal, scintillometry, lysimetry), field scale models (e.g. SWB, SWAP), catchment scale hydrological models (e.g. ACRU, SWAT) and more recently remote sensing based models (e.g. SEBAL, SEBS). The National Water Act of South Africa of 1998 requires that water resources are managed, protected and used (developed, conserved and controlled) in an equit...
We have used the technique of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) with a fiber optic cable to d... more We have used the technique of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) with a fiber optic cable to determine actual evaporation over land. The results were compared with measurements using a surface layer scintilometer, surface renewal and eddy covariance techniques. Dry and wetted sections of a fiber optic cable were suspended from a six meter high tower in a sugar beet trial in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. From the principle of a psychrometer, a near continuous observation of vapor pressure and temperature at 0.20 m intervals of a vertical column of air above the field could be derived. Subsequently it allowed accurate determination of the ratio of sensible and latent heat, i.e. the Bowen ratio over time and in the vertical. Using measurements of the net radiation, soil heat flux and the Bowen ratio sensible heat flux, the actual evaporation could be determined as the residual of the shortened energy balance equation. The advantage of the DTS method over the traditional Bowen ratio m...
Smallholder farmers depend on healthy and productive crop yields to sustain their socio-economic ... more Smallholder farmers depend on healthy and productive crop yields to sustain their socio-economic status and ensure livelihood security. Advances in South African precision agriculture in the form of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide spatially explicit near-real-time information that can be used to assess crop dynamics and inform smallholder farmers. The use of UAVs with remote-sensing techniques allows for the acquisition of high spatial resolution data at various spatio-temporal planes, which is particularly useful at the scale of fields and farms. Specifically, crop chlorophyll content is assessed as it is one of the best known and reliable indicators of crop health, due to its biophysical pigment and biochemical processes that indicate plant productivity. In this regard, the study evaluated the utility of multispectral UAV imagery using the random forest machine learning algorithm to estimate the chlorophyll content of maize through the various growth stages. The results sh...
AFFILIATIONS: 1Centre for Water Resources Research, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environment... more AFFILIATIONS: 1Centre for Water Resources Research, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 2Discipline of Agrometeorology, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa 4Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
ABSTRACT Eddy covariance (EC) systems are expensive and not financially viable in a budget-restri... more ABSTRACT Eddy covariance (EC) systems are expensive and not financially viable in a budget-restricted hydrological monitoring network. The surface renewal (SR) method is a cheaper alternative that requires a reduced fetch, but is currently dependent on EC for calibration. SR methods not requiring calibration (surface renewal 2 (SR2) and surface renewal dissipation theory (SRDT)) have been used but are not widely tested over indigenous vegetation. The aim of this research was to test the SR approach as a viable alternative to EC for the estimation of sensible heat flux (H) over indigenous vegetation (Leucosidea sericea) in a montane catchment for unstable periods. For both summer (7 d) and winter (9 d) campaigns, the three SR methods showed a good relationship with the EC method for the estimation of H. Overall, the SRDT method was the most viable alternative to EC and produced acceptable estimates of H over an indigenous vegetation canopy in a montane catchment.
Determining maize water content variability is necessary for crop monitoring and in developing ea... more Determining maize water content variability is necessary for crop monitoring and in developing early warning systems to optimise agricultural production in smallholder farms. However, spatially explicit information on maize water content, particularly in Southern Africa, remains elementary due to the shortage of efficient and affordable primary sources of suitable spatial data at a local scale. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), equipped with light-weight multispectral sensors, provide spatially explicit, near-real-time information for determining the maize crop water status at farm scale. Therefore, this study evaluated the utility of UAV-derived multispectral imagery and machine learning techniques in estimating maize leaf water indicators: equivalent water thickness (EWT), fuel moisture content (FMC), and specific leaf area (SLA). The results illustrated that both NIR and red-edge derived spectral variables were critical in characterising the maize water indicators on smallholder f...
Rainfall and air temperature variability pose the greatest risk to environmental change. Past tre... more Rainfall and air temperature variability pose the greatest risk to environmental change. Past trends in rainfall and air temperature facilitate projecting future climate changes for informed policy responses. We used a combination of the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and observed data from 1968 to 2017 to assess changes in rainfall, moisture stress, and air temperature variability over time on bioclimatic regions of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, South Africa. Indicators used included consecutive dry days (CDDs), consecutive wet days (CWDs), very heavy rainfall days (R20), monthly maximum daily maximum air temperature (TXx), monthly minimum daily minimum air temperature (TNn), the total number of rainfall days, and monthly air temperature averages. Trends in rainfall and moisture stress are notable in different bioclimatic regions across the province. However, these trends are diverse, in general, and spatially different across and within the bioclimatic regions. Furt...
Climate change projections of increases in lightning activity are an added concern for lightning-... more Climate change projections of increases in lightning activity are an added concern for lightning-prone countries such as South Africa. South Africa’s high levels of poverty, lack of education, and awareness, as well as a poorly developed infrastructure, increase the vulnerability of rural communities to the threat of lightning. Despite the existence of national lightning networks, lightning alerts and warnings are not disseminated well to such rural communities. We therefore developed a community-based early warning system (EWS) to detect and disseminate lightning threats and alerts in a timely and comprehensible manner within Swayimane, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The system is composed of an electrical field meter and a lightning flash sensor with warnings disseminated via audible and visible alarms on site and with a remote server issuing short message services (SMSs) and email alerts. Twelve months of data (February 2018–February 2019) were utilized to evaluate the performance ...
Accurate and timely information on surface water quality and quantity is critical for various app... more Accurate and timely information on surface water quality and quantity is critical for various applications, including irrigation agriculture. In-field water quality and quantity data from unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAVs) could be useful in closing spatial data gaps through the generation of near-real-time, fine resolution, spatially explicit information required for water resources accounting. This study assessed the progress, opportunities, and challenges in mapping and modelling water quality and quantity using data from UAVs. To achieve this research objective, a systematic review was adopted. The results show modest progress in the utility of UAVs, especially in the global south. This could be attributed, in part, to high costs, a lack of relevant skills, and the regulations associated with drone procurement and operational costs. The progress is further compounded by a general lack of research focusing on UAV application in water resources monitoring and assessment. More ...
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an alternative to costly and time-consuming traditional metho... more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an alternative to costly and time-consuming traditional methods to improve agricultural water management and crop productivity through the acquisition, processing, and analyses of high-resolution spatial and temporal crop data at field scale. UAVs mounted with multispectral and thermal cameras facilitate the monitoring of crops throughout the crop growing cycle, allowing for timely detection and intervention in case of any anomalies. The use of UAVs in smallholder agriculture is poised to ensure food security at household level and improve agricultural water management in developing countries. This review synthesises the use of UAVs in smallholder agriculture in the smallholder agriculture sector in developing countries. The review highlights the role of UAV derived normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) in assessing crop health, evapotranspiration, water stress and disaster risk reduction. The focus is to provide more accurate statistics o...
The biomass allocation pattern of plants to shoots and roots is a key in the cycle of elements su... more The biomass allocation pattern of plants to shoots and roots is a key in the cycle of elements such as carbon, water and nutrients with, for instance, the greatest allocations to roots fostering the transfer of atmospheric carbon to soils through photosynthesis. Several studies have investigated the root to shoot ratio (R:S) biomass of existing crops but variation within a crop species constitutes an important information gap for selecting genotypes aiming for increasing soil carbon stocks for climate change mitigation and food security. The objectives of this study were to evaluate agronomic performance and quantify biomass production and allocation between roots and shoots, in response to different soil water levels to select promising genotypes for breeding. Field and greenhouse experiments were carried out using 100 genotypes including wheat and Triticale under drought‐stressed and non‐stressed conditions. The experiments were set‐up using a 10 × 10 alpha lattice design with two replications under water stress and non‐stress conditions. The following phenotypic traits were collected: number of days to heading (DTH), number of productive tillers per plant (NPT), plant height (PH), days to maturity (DTM), spike length (SL), kernels per spike (KPS), thousand kernel weight (TKW), root biomass (RB), shoot biomass (SB), root to shoot ratio (R:S) and grain yield (GY). There was significant (p < 0.05) variation for grain yield and biomass production because of genotypic variation. The highest grain yield of 247.3 g/m² was recorded in the genotype LM52 and the least was in genotype Sossognon with 30 g/m². Shoot biomass ranged from 830 g/m² (genotype Arenza) to 437 g/m² (LM57), whilst root biomass ranged between 603 g/m² for Triticale and 140 g/m² for LM15 across testing sites and water regimes. Triticale also recorded the highest R:S of 1.2, whilst the least was 0.30 for wheat genotype LM18. Overall, drought stress reduced total biomass production by 35% and R:S by 14%. Genotypic variation existed for all measured traits useful for improving drought tolerance, whilst the calculated R:S values can improve accuracy in estimating C sequestration potential of wheat. Wheat genotypes LM26, LM47, BW140, LM70, LM48, BW152, LM75, BW162, LM71 and BW141 were selected for further development based on their high total biomass production, grain yield potential and genetic diversity under drought stress.
In South Africa the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the c... more In South Africa the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the country's limited water resources. Tree water-use measurements have therefore become an important component of recent hydrological studies. It is difficult for government initiatives, such as the Working for Water (WfW) alien clearing programmes, to justify alien tree removal and implement rehabilitation unless a known hydrological benefit can be seen. Consequently water-use within a riparian forest along the Buffeljags river in the Western Cape of South Africa was monitored over a three year period. The site consisted of an indigenous stand of Western Cape afrotemperate forest adjacent to a large stand of introduced <i>Acacia mearnsii</i>. The heat ratio method was used to measure the water-use of a selection of representative indigenous species in the indigenous stand, a selection of…
In South Africa, the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the ... more In South Africa, the invasion of riparian forests by alien trees has the potential to affect the country's limited water resources. Tree water-use measurements have therefore become an important component of recent hydrological studies. It is difficult for South African government initiatives, such as the Working for Water (WfW) alien clearing program, to justify alien tree removal and implement rehabilitation unless hydrological benefits are known. Consequently, water use within a riparian forest along the Buffeljags River in the Western Cape of South Africa was monitored over a 3-year period. The site consisted of an indigenous stand of Western Cape afrotemperate forest adjacent to a large stand of introduced <i>Acacia mearnsii</i>. The heat ratio method of the heat pulse velocity sap flow technique was used to measure the sap flow of a selection of indigenous species in the indigenous stand, a selection of <i>A. mearnsii</i> trees in the alien stand an...
Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Science, 2016
Several hundred mine tailings dams occur in the Witwatersrand Basin Goldfields in central South A... more Several hundred mine tailings dams occur in the Witwatersrand Basin Goldfields in central South Africa. Seepage of acid mine drainage (AMD) from these unlined structures is widespread, and a variety of contaminants is released into soil and groundwater. The ‘Mine Woodlands Project’ is aimed at evaluating the use of high-density tree stands over surrounding contaminant plumes to limit the spread of contaminants through hydraulic control of groundwater and enhanced uptake or immobilisation of contaminants. The annual pattern of hourly sap flow in four contiguous Eucalyptus dunnii trees (aged three years) was followed over a full year in a species trial situated near Carltonville. The annual pattern of hourly sap flow was also recorded in four contiguous sample trees (aged four years) of the clonal hybrid E. grandis × E. camaldulensis (E. G×C) at another trial near Orkney. Both species showed high sap flow rates close to reference evaporation rates in response to summer rains. Both showed greatly reduced sap flow rates during the latter half of the dry winter season. Sap flow rates only recovered after the arrival of the first spring rains. Annual sap flow (E. dunnii, 673 mm; E. G×C, 767 mm) was similar to the recorded annual rainfall at each site (E. dunnii, 629 mm; E. G×C, 795 mm), and was substantially lower than total annual reference evaporation (E. dunnii, 1 273 mm; E. G×C, 1 330 mm). We conclude that the roots of both species are not yet deep enough to access the AMD-influenced groundwater, which lies at depths of 14 and 10 m below the ground at the Carltonville and Orkney sites, respectively. Despite prolonged water deficits, both species survived well and maintained sufficient vigour to permit the quick recovery of high transpiration rates in the following summer. This resilience is essential to hasten root growth and improve the chance of contact with groundwater plumes.
The contribution of hydrological research in South Africa in quantifying green water flows for im... more The contribution of hydrological research in South Africa in quantifying green water flows for improved Integrated Land and Water Resources Management is reviewed. Green water refers to water losses from land surfaces through transpiration (seen as a productive use) and evaporation from bare soil (seen as a non-productive use). In contrast, blue water flows refer to streamflow (surface water) and groundwater / aquifer recharge. Over the past 20 years, a number of methods have been used to quantify the green water and blue water flows. These include micrometeorological techniques (e.g. Bowen ratio energy balance, eddy covariance, surface renewal, scintillometry, lysimetry), field scale models (e.g. SWB, SWAP), catchment scale hydrological models (e.g. ACRU, SWAT) and more recently remote sensing based models (e.g. SEBAL, SEBS). The National Water Act of South Africa of 1998 requires that water resources are managed, protected and used (developed, conserved and controlled) in an equit...
We have used the technique of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) with a fiber optic cable to d... more We have used the technique of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) with a fiber optic cable to determine actual evaporation over land. The results were compared with measurements using a surface layer scintilometer, surface renewal and eddy covariance techniques. Dry and wetted sections of a fiber optic cable were suspended from a six meter high tower in a sugar beet trial in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. From the principle of a psychrometer, a near continuous observation of vapor pressure and temperature at 0.20 m intervals of a vertical column of air above the field could be derived. Subsequently it allowed accurate determination of the ratio of sensible and latent heat, i.e. the Bowen ratio over time and in the vertical. Using measurements of the net radiation, soil heat flux and the Bowen ratio sensible heat flux, the actual evaporation could be determined as the residual of the shortened energy balance equation. The advantage of the DTS method over the traditional Bowen ratio m...
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Papers by alistair clulow