Water balance of Prosopis spicigera community

Abstract

An experiment on water balance of Prosopis spicigera community was conducted at the research farm of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur. The experimental site is a typical habitat of the community with sandy to sandy loam Boll. Chrono Isopleths were drawn for the soil moisture observations taken during 1963 and 1964 and the water content in mm for every 50-cm layer from surface to 2-metre depth have been presented. Seasonal soil moisture changes occurring till the onset of monsoon, during monsoon and after monsoon have been discussed. Various water balance components such as evapotranspiration and run-off etc have been presented for different periods in the growing season of the vegetation, The evapo-transpiration of the community in the sandy soils of Rajasthan during the months other than the monsoon months i3 surprisingly low, Prosopis spiciyera trees extract moisture not only from a very wide area but also take the same from the layers below the kankar zone usually at 1 to 2-metre depth below which their roots penetrate. The role of condensation of water in vapour phase for the arid zone communities has been indicated.