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Abstract:
An understanding of the spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture is essential for studying other hydrological, biological, or chemical soil processes, such as water movement, microbial activity, and biogeochemical cycling. The analysis was based on soil water regime measurements from several vegetation seasons (comprising both wet and dry years). We investigated both column average soil water content and also its vertical distribution. The water balance of the soil column was studied by the bucket-type soil water balance model. It was shown that the forest type is an important factor controlling the rate of evapotranspiration which in turn influences the soil water regime, especially in dry periods. In wet periods, the differences among particular sites were negligible. In dry periods, the soil was slightly wetter in the site affected by the bark beetle outbreak in the surface soil layer and drier in the deeper soil layer. Similarly, the differences in the beech and spruce forests were most pronounced in dry periods. In this case, the beech forest was more efficient in terms of evapotranspiration water consumption which resulted in drier soil compared to spruce covered plot. In the spruce site, the soil was regularly drier only at the beginning of the season, given by different interception rates during winter. The differences between spruce and beech forest were based namely on the water consumption efficiency and differences in interception rates, vertical distribution of the roots, and soil hydraulic properties.
