Interception losses are a major influence in the water yield of vegetated areas. For most storms, interception results in less water reaching the ground. However, fog drip or occult precipitation can result in negative interception because small drops are deposited on all plant surfaces and subsequently fall to the ground once vegetation storage capacities are exceeded. Fog drip is normally disregarded, but for some plant communities, it could be a mechanism offsetting evaporation losses. Tillandsia recurvata is a cosmopolitan epiphyte adapted to arid habitats where fog may be an important water source. Therefore, the interception storage capacity by T. recurvata was measured in controlled conditions through applying simulated rain or fog. The storage capacity was proportional to dry weight mass. Nocturnal stomatic opening in T. recurvata is not only relevant for CO₂ but for water vapor, as suggested by the higher weight change of specimens wetted with fog for 1 h at dark in comparison to those wetted during daylight (543±77 vs. 325±56 mg, p=0.048). The coefficients obtained in the laboratory were used together with biomass measurements for T. recurvata in a xeric scrub to calculate the depth of water intercepted. Interception storage capacity (C_min) was 0.19 and 0.54 mm for rainfall and fog respectively. T. recurvata contributed 20% to the rain interception of their shrub hosts: Acacia farnesiana and Prosopis laevigata. Meteorological data registered during one year at Cadereyta, México showed that radiative fog formation was possible during the dry season. The results showed the potential role of T. recurvata in capturing fog, which probably is a main source of water during the dry season that supports their reproductive and physiological activity at that time. The storage capacity of T. recurvata leaf surfaces could increase the amount of water available for evaporation, but as this species colonise montane forests, the effect could be negative on water recharge, because in the laboratory experiments it took up to 12 h to reach saturation conditions when fog was applied

Abstract. Interception losses are a major influence in the water yield of vegetated areas. For most storms, rain interception results in less water reaching the ground. However, fog interception can increase the overall water storage capacity of the vegetation and once the storage is exceeded, fog drip is a common hydrological input. Fog interception is disregarded in water budgets of semiarid regions, but for some plant communities, it could be a mechanism offsetting evaporation losses. Tillandsia recurvata is a cosmopolitan epiphyte adapted to arid habitats where fog may be an important water source. Therefore, the interception storage capacity by T. recurvata was measured in controlled conditions and applying simulated rain or fog. Juvenile, vegetative specimens were used to determine the potential upperbound storage capacities. The storage capacity was proportional to dry weight mass. Interception storage capacity (C min ) was 0.19 and 0.56 mm for rainfall and fog respectively. The coefficients obtained in the laboratory were used together with biomass measurements for T. recurvata in a xeric scrub to calculate the depth of water intercepted by rain. T. recurvata contributed 20 % to the rain interception capacity of their shrub hosts: Acacia farnesiana and Prosopis laevigata and; also potentially intercepted 4.8 % of the annual rainfall. Nocturnal stomatic opening in T. recurvata is not only relevant for CO 2 but for water vapor, as suggested by the higher weight change of specimens wetted with fog for 1 h at dark in comparison to those wetted during daylight (543 ± 77 vs. 325 ± 56 mg, p = 0.048). The storage capacity of T. recurvata leaf surfaces could increase the amount of water available for evaporation, but as this species colonise montane forests, the effect could be negative on water recharge, because potential storage capacity is very high, in the laboratory experiments it took up to 12 h at a rate of 0.26 l h −1 to reach saturation conditions when fog was applied.

Abstract:Mexico is a diverse country in terms of culture and natural environments. For this reason, the delimitation of homogeneous basins with similar environmental, social, and economic attributes is important in order to facilitate the elaboration of high-impact regional development strategies. However, this represents an ongoing challenge due to the complexity of the interactions that occur within socio-ecological systems at a regional scale. In the present study, the main objective was to identify the interrelationships among different aspects of the socio-ecological system located within basins, with the goal of utilizing this information to promote the region-specific sustainable development of an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Therefore, in this study, environmental, social, economic, and institutional variables, relevant to water management and with the capacity to be expressed spatially, were utilized to identify regions with similar characteristics and to regionalize the urban sub-basins of Mexico based on a principal component analysis (PCA) and the k-medoids clustering algorithm. The identification of the most adequate number of regions at the national level was determined by the silhouette method. As a result, five distinct regions for Mexico were generated, which forms the first step in the design of integrated water resources management strategies for these regions.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Vegetation fixes C in its biomass through photosynthesis or might release it into the atmosphere through respiration. Measurements of these fluxes would help us understand ecosystem functioning. The eddy covariance technique (EC) is widely used to measure the net ecosystem exchange of C (NEE) which is the balance between gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (R<sub>eco</sub>). Orbital satellites such as MODIS can also provide estimates of GPP. In this study, we measured NEE with the EC in a scrub at Bernal in Mexico, and then partitioned into gross primary production (GPP-EC) and R<sub>eco</sub> using the recent R package Reddyproc. Measurements of GPP-EC were related to the estimates from the MODIS satellite provided in product MOD17A2H, which contains data of the gross primary productivity (GPP-MODIS). The Bernal site was a carbon sink despite it was an overgrazed site, the average NEE during fifteen months of 2017 and 2018 was −0.78 g C m<sup>−2</sup> d<sup>−1</sup> and the flux was negative in all measured months. The GPP-MODIS underestimated the ground data when representing the relation with a Theil-Sen regression: GPP-EC = 1.866 + 1.861 GPP-MODIS; an ordinary less squares regression had similar coefficients and the R<sup>2</sup> was 0.6. Although cacti (CAM), legume shrubs (C<sub>3</sub>) and herbs (C<sub>3</sub>) had a similar vegetation index, the nighttime flux was characterized by positive NEE suggesting that the photosynthetic dark-cycle flux of cacti was lower than R<sub>eco</sub>. The discrepancy among the GPP flux estimates stresses the need to understand the limitations of EC and remote sensors, while incorporating complementary monitoring and modelling schemes of nighttime R<sub>eco</sub>, particularly in the presence of species with different photosynthetic cycles.</p>