In deciduous forests, soil moisture is an important driver of energy and carbon cycling, as well as ecosystem dynamics. The amount and distribution of soil moisture also influences soil microbial activity, nutrient fluxes, and groundwater recharge. Characterizing interactions between vegetation and soil moisture is critical to forecast water resources and ecosystem health in a changing climate. However, these interactions are difficult to measure, both in time and space. Recent studies have shown the ability of electrical resistivity tomography to characterize the spatial and temporal dynamics of soil moisture below a range of different vegetation types. We adopted this method as a main tool to study forest soil moisture. Also, a relatively new and low budget method using plaster of pairs was used to capture throughfall. In this study, an above-ground throughfall measurement is added to the previous below-ground study conducted at the same site years ago to achieve a better understanding of the spatial variability of soil moisture and other environmental variables of a deciduous forest in central Mid-Michigan.
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