Lin et al. (2026) Coupled effects of grazing exclusion and surface energy balance on grassland runoff dynamics

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Hydrology Regional Studies
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-15
• Authors: Xi Lin, Shengwei Zhang, ALFREDO R. HUETE, Hongbin Zhao, Shengwei Lv, Xiaoduo Zhang, X. M. Zhang
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2026.103980

Research Groups

• Inner Mongolia Agricultural University
• State Key Laboratory of Water Engineering Ecology and Environment in Arid Area
• Autonomous Region Collaborative Innovation Center for Integrated Management of Water Resources and Water Environment in the Inner Mongolia Reaches of the Yellow River
• College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering
• School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney

Short Summary

This study investigates the coupled effects of grazing exclusion and surface energy balance on grassland runoff dynamics using a paired field experiment and a coupled modeling framework integrating DHSVM with intPLUS. The results show that grazing exclusion reduces surface runoff through changes in vegetation cover, soil physical properties, and surface energy balance.

Objective

• Investigate how grazing exclusion regulates grassland runoff through changes in vegetation cover, soil physical properties, and surface energy balance acting as a key mediating pathway.
• Project future runoff dynamics under CMIP6 climate scenarios.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Watershed scale (Inner Mongolia grasslands)
• Temporal Scale: Daily to annual time scales

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model (DHSVM) with intPLUS land use dynamics model
• Data sources: Field measurements, satellite data, reanalysis datasets

Main Results

• Grazing exclusion reduces surface runoff through changes in vegetation cover, soil physical properties, and surface energy balance.
• Upward longwave radiation is negatively associated with runoff (β = −0.291).
• Under SSP5–8.5, the grazing-exclusion configuration produced lower simulated daily high-flow indicators than the grazing configuration under the same climate forcing.

Contributions

• This study provides new evidence for understanding ecohydrological responses in semi-arid grasslands.
• The results highlight coordinated associations among grazing management, vegetation-soil conditions, surface-energy processes, and runoff dynamics.

Funding

• National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51779222)
• Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Science and Technology Innovation Fund (Grant No. 2022HJ0001)

Citation

@article{Lin2026Coupled,
  author = {Lin, Xi and Zhang, Shengwei and HUETE, ALFREDO R. and Zhao, Hongbin and Lv, Shengwei and Zhang, Xiaoduo and Zhang, X. M.},
  title = {Coupled effects of grazing exclusion and surface energy balance on grassland runoff dynamics},
  journal = {Journal of Hydrology Regional Studies},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.ejrh.2026.103980},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2026.103980}
}