Overview of the research status in interaction between hydrological processes and vegetation in catchment

Based on a comprehensive literature review,this study summarizes the research status of ecohydrology from three aspects: the mechanism of interaction between catchment hydrological processes and vegetation,catchment ecohydrological model,and ecohydrological response to the climate change.For a long period,catchment hydrology focuses on the water cycle only,however,it is moving to an interdiscipline of the water,energy and mass cycles and the interaction with ecosystem.Ecohydrology is one of the trends of hydrological sciences.At present,studies on the interaction between hydrological processes and vegetation are mainly focused on the one-way effect analysis,e.g.,impact of hydrological processes on vegetation or impact of vegetation on hydrological processes.It lacks of the research on interaction between hydrological processes and vegetation,and there are no enough understandings of the catchment soil-vegetation-atmosphere system.It has been reported by many researches that climate change is impacting significantly on the catchment hydrological processes and vegetation growth;therefore,study on the ecohydrological response to the climate change is a front topic of hydrology.In order to predict the future ecological trend under climate change,it requires enhance process study on the catchment ecohydrology.Ecological optimality principle can be used to explain the response of vegetation to the environment changes,and has been widely used for characterizing interaction between the vegetation and hydrological processes.Development of the ecohydrological model based on the optimality principle is one of the hot topics in ecohydrology.