Ecohydrology in a Brazilian tropical dry forest: thinned vegetation impact on hydrological functions and ecosystem services

Study region: This study was developed in two paired catchments under a tropical dry climate with a tropical dry forest landcover subject to vegetation management in the Brazilian northeastern region. Water input is mostly from rainfall, concentrated in three to four months of the year and with a potential evaporation that is over twice the amount of rainfall that characterizes its hydric deficit. Study focus: Interactions between hydrological functions, services and human actions to minimize environmental impacts, improve the availability of water of good quality and decrease degradation of the ecosystems; land use management effect on systems resilience, impact on surface runoff, soil loss, herbaceous and radicular biomass production, soil humidity and total organic carbon under altered vegetation cover. New hydrological insights for the region: Strategies to improve ecosystem services should rely on adequate management of vegetation to reduce surface flow. This reduction contributes to higher soil moisture contents, less intense erosive processes and resulting higher stocked soil carbon. The many techniques that improve resilience and ecosystem services in tropical dry forests lack an integrated view on how ecohydrological processes may be managed to favor the system. Vegetation thinning promotes underbrush development that dissipates rainfall and surface flow kinetic energy, increasing soil moisture content and carbon fixation and reducing soil loss.