Summary: Drought‐induced tree mortality frequently occurs in patches with different spatial and temporal distributions, which is only partly explained by inter‐ and intraspecific variation in drought tolerance. We investigated whether bedrock properties, with special reference to rock water storage capacity, affects tree water status and drought response in a rock‐dominated landscape. We measured primary porosity and available water content of breccia (B) and dolostone (D) rocks. Saplings ofFraxinus ornuswere grown in pots filled with soil or soil mixed with B and D rocks, and subjected to an experimental drought. Finally, we measured seasonal changes in water status of trees in field sites overlying B or D bedrock. B rocks were more porous and stored more available water than D rocks. Potted saplings grown with D rocks had less biomass and suffered more severe water stress than those with B rocks. Trees in sites with B bedrock had more favourable water status than those on D bedrock which also suffered drought‐induced canopy dieback. Bedrock represents an important water source for plants under drought. Different bedrock features translate into contrasting below‐ground water availability, leading to landscape‐level heterogeneity of the impact of drought on tree water status and dieback.

We are witnessing a digital revolution in geoscientific field data collection and data sharing, driven by the availability of low-cost sensory platforms capable of generating accurate surface reconstructions as well as the proliferation of apps and repositories which can leverage their data products. Whilst the wider proliferation of 3D close-range remote sensing applications is welcome, improved accessibility is often at the expense of model accuracy. To test the accuracy of consumer-grade close-range 3D model acquisition platforms commonly employed for geo-documentation, we have mapped a 20-m-wide trench using aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry, as well as iOS LiDAR. The latter was used to map the trench using both the 3D Scanner App and PIX4Dcatch applications. Comparative analysis suggests that only in optimal scenarios can geotagged field-based photographs alone result in models with acceptable scaling errors, though even in these cases, the orientation of the transformed model is not sufficiently accurate for most geoscientific applications requiring structural metric data. The apps tested for iOS LiDAR acquisition were able to produce accurately scaled models, though surface deformations caused by simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) errors are present. Finally, of the tested apps, PIX4Dcatch is the iOS LiDAR acquisition tool able to produce correctly oriented models.

The study of the different hydrogeological compartments is a prerequisite for understanding and monitoring different fluxes, thereby evaluating the environmental changes in an ecosystem where anthropogenic disturbances are present in order to preserve the most vulnerable groundwaters from contamination and degradation. In many karst domains in the Mediterranean, areas groundwaters and surface waters are a single system, as a result of the features that facilitate the ingression of waters from surface to subsurface. This is also the case for the Classical Karst hydrostructure, which is a carbonate plateau that rises above the northern Adriatic Sea, shared between Italy and Slovenia. The main suppliers to the aquifer are the effective precipitations and the waters from three different rivers: Reka/Timavo, Soča/Isonzo and Vipava/Vipacco. Past and ongoing hydrogeological studies on the area have focused on the connections within the Classical Karst Region aquifer system through the analysis of water caves and springs hydrographs and chemographs. In this paper, the authors present new combined data from major ions, oxygen, hydrogen and strontium stable and radiogenic isotopes which have allowed a more complementary knowledge of the groundwater circulation, provenance and water-rock interactions. All the actions occurred in the framework of the European project HYDROKARST.