Landscape patchiness influences the retention and flow of water and key ecosystem resources such as nutrients, organic matter, and sediments. This idea has proven highly informative in the study of landscape processes from the scale of resource islands centred on individual plants, to increasingly large spatial scales involving plant communities and runoff-runon systems. Runoff pathways may be continuous or compartmentalized, depending upon the patch structure of the landscape, and this characteristic in turn influences the development of erosion rates and soil properties.
In this session we will explore the patchiness concept from several perspectives: empirical field data on canopy interception, infiltration, and the generation of surface runoff, and other landscape properties; conceptual models of runoff production in relation to patchiness; and numerical models that explore the evolution of patch structuring in landscapes.
The session will provide an opportunity to take stock of what has been learned to date, to present new data, and to hold a wide-ranging discussion of research needs and opportunities in this important area of landscape research.
Solicited speakers
Itzhak Katra. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Moran Segoli. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Israel