Landscape and Urban Planning 139 (2015) 54–62 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Landscape and Urban Planning j o ur na l ho me pag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/landurbplan Research Paper Functional ecohydrological differences among native and exotic grassland covers in sub-urban landscapes of Chihuahua city, Mexico Víctor Manuel Reyes Gómez a,∗ , Oscar Viramontes Olivas b,1 , Jose Tulio Arredondo Moreno c,2 , Elisabeth Huber Sannwald c,2 , Alfredo Rangel Rodríguez b,1 a Red de Ambiente y Sustentabilidad, Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL), Avenida Miguel de Cervantes 120, Complejo Industrial Chihuahua, CP 31109, Chihuahua, Chih, Mexico b Posgrado (FCA-UACH) Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Circuito Universitario # 1, CP 31125, Chihuahua, Chih, Mexico c Departamento de Ecología y Cambio Ambiental Global, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Camino a la Presa San José 2055, Col. Lomas 4 sección, CP 78216, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico h i g h l i g h t s • Soil texture and plant species composition control shallow water recharge. • Functional species traits rather than the origin (native or exotic) of species enhance percolation rates. • Induced grasslands enhance shallow percolations and thus provide important ecosystem services in suburban landscapes. a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 1 August 2014 Received in revised form 3 March 2015 Accepted 9 March 2015 Keywords: Percolation Cumulative infiltration Shallow recharge Grassland Ecosystem’s services a b s t r a c t Vegetation characteristics of sub-urban areas might play underestimated regional roles in the provision of ecohydrological services such as the recharge of wells and superficial water reservoirs (dams), dust control and climate buffering. We hypothesized that potential hydrological processes at the soil–grass interface in a sub-urban area in Chihuahua are affected differently by native and exotic plant species, in that vegetation patches of native grasses favor infiltration and percolation over bare soil (interspaces) and over vegetation patches of exotic species. We examined these hypotheses by monitoring infiltra- tion and permeability of adjacent soils in sub-urbanized semiarid grasslands dominated by native or exotic grass species. Our study revealed that both, soil textural characteristics and plant species com- position are important controls of percolation and infiltration in semiarid grassland ecosystems. The test of homogeneity of slopes showed significantly higher infiltration rates in patches compared to vegetation-free interspaces in sites with Eragrostis superba (F > 199, P < 0.001), Digitaria californica (F > 632, P < 0.001), Eragrostis lehmanniana (F > 533, P < 0.001) and Bouteloua gracilis (F > 102, P < 0.001). High sim- ilarity in potential percolation rates in vegetation patches of E. superba and D. californica suggests an overall beneficial effect of both native and exotic species on ecohydrological ecosystem services. How- ever, the exotic species E. lehmanniana showed higher shallow infiltration than B. gracilis. Our study demonstrates that rather than promoting preferentially native grass species, species-specific functional traits should be considered for restoring soil–water related regulatory ecosystem services in degraded grasslands. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 614 451 0905. E-mail addresses: victor.reyes@inecol.mx (V.M. Reyes Gómez), oviramon@uach.mx (O. Viramontes Olivas), tulio@ipicyt.edu.mx (J.T. Arredondo Moreno), ehs@ipicyt.edu.mx (E. Huber Sannwald), p186021@uach.mx (A.R. Rodríguez). 1 Tel.: +52 614 442 0069x6609. 2 Tel.: +52 614 444 834 20 00x2029. 1. Introduction Plant species from arid ecosystems have developed adaptations both to withstand extreme environmental conditions (i.e. temper- ature and drought) and to garner scarce water and soil mineral resources. For instance, extensive dimorphic root systems may take advantage of both percolated rainwater at greater soil depth and http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.03.005 0169-2046/© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.