Hydrology and Watershed Science

Ecohydrology of Edwards Plateau

Through a long-term collaboration between researchers from Texas State University and Texas A&M University, numerous experimental and observation studies have been conducted to characterize the hydrological and vegetation dynamics of woodland and savanna ecosystems on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas. The Edwards Plateau is a limestone karst and has many unusual landscape features, including skeletal soils over weathered bedrock, spring-fed rivers, caves and sinkholes. This landscape complexity, coupled with high inter-annual rainfall variability, creates many uncertainties for hydrological and vegetation modeling. A central theme for these research efforts has been the quantification of the storage capacity for plant-available water across the landscape. This quantity is central for the modeling and forecasting of groundwater recharge and vegetation trends.   

Susan Schwinning schwinn@txstate.edu