Soil water preferential flow: Broad drivers and consequences for encroached grassland

This Nov. 22, 2024, talk is presented by Rachel Keen, postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Sharon Billings at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research.
Soil water preferential flow (the rapid channeling of water into deeper soil layers) can have major impacts on soil water storage, groundwater recharge, and the transport of pollutants to local water sources. This talk summarizes current work assessing the factors that impact when and where preferential flow occurs, and how the process of woody encroachment is altering these soil moisture dynamics in tallgrass prairies of northeastern Kansas.
Sharon Billings is a senior scientist at our research center and University Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas.