scholarly journals Simulation of root water uptake under combined soil moisture and salinity stress

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 669-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingming Wang ◽  
Zailin Huo ◽  
Shaoyuan Feng ◽  
Chengfu Yuan ◽  
Jianhua Wang

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conrad Jackisch ◽  
Samuel Knoblauch ◽  
Theresa Blume ◽  
Erwin Zehe ◽  
Sibylle K. Hassler

Abstract. Root water uptake (RWU) as one important process in the terrestrial water cycle can help to better understand the interactions in the soil water plant system. We conducted a field study monitoring soil moisture profiles in the rhizosphere of beech trees at two sites with different soil conditions. We infer RWU from step-shaped, diurnal changes in soil moisture. While this approach is a feasible, easily implemented method during wet and moderate conditions, limitations were identified during drier states and for more heterogeneous soil settings. A comparison with time series of xylem sap velocity reveals that RWU and sap flow are complementary measures of the transpiration process. The high correlation between the sap flow time series of the two sites, but lower correlation between the RWU time series, suggests that the trees adapt RWU to soil heterogeneity and site differences.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron A. Smith ◽  
Doerthe Tetzlaff ◽  
Chris Soulsby

Abstract. Quantifying ecohydrological controls on soil water availability is essential to understand temporal variations in catchment storage. Soil water is subject to numerous time-variable fluxes (evaporation, root-uptake, and recharge), each with different water ages which in turn affect the age of water in storage. Here, we adapt StorAge Selection (SAS) function theory to investigate water flow in soils and identify soil evaporation and root-water uptake sources from depth. We use this to quantify the effects of soil-vegetation interactions on the inter-relationships between water fluxes, storage, and age. The novel modification of the SAS function framework is tested against empirical data from two contrasting soil-vegetation units in the Scottish Highlands; these are characterised by significant preferential flow, transporting younger water through the soil during high soil moisture conditions. Dominant young water fluxes, along with relatively low rainfall intensities, explain relatively stable soil water ages through time and with depth. Soil evaporation sources were more time-invariant with high preference for near-surface water, independent of soil moisture conditions, and resulting in soil evaporation water ages similar to near-surface soil waters (mean age: 50–65 days). Sources of root-water uptake were more variable: preferential near-surface water uptake occurred in wet conditions, with a deeper root-uptake source during dry soil conditions, which resulted in more variable water ages of transpiration (mean age: 56–79 days). The simple model structure provides a parsimonious means of constraining the water age of multiple fluxes from the upper part of the critical zone during time-varying conditions improving our understanding of vegetation influences on catchment scale water fluxes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bouda

AbstractLand surface model (LSM) predictions of soil moisture and transpiration under water-limited conditions suffer from biases due to a lack of mechanistic process description of vegetation water uptake. Here, I derive a ‘big root’ approach from the porous pipe equation for root water uptake and compare its predictions of soil moistures during the 2010 summer drought at the Wind River Crane site to two previously used Ohm’s law analogue plant hydraulic models. Structural error due to inadequate representation of root system architecture (RSA) in both Ohm’s law analogue models yields significant and predictable moisture biases. The big root model greatly reduces these as it better represents RSA effects on pressure gradients and flows within the roots. It represents a major theoretical advance in understanding vegetation water limitation at site scale with potential to improve LSM predictions of soil moisture, temperature and surface heat, water, and carbon fluxes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepanshu Khare ◽  
Gernot Bodner ◽  
Mathieu Javaux ◽  
Jan Vanderborght ◽  
Daniel Leitner ◽  
...  

<p>Plant transpiration and root water uptake are dependent on multiple traits that interact with site soil characteristics and environmental factors such as radiation, atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, and soil-moisture content. Models of root architecture and functions are increasingly employed to simulate root-soil interactions. Root water uptake is thereby affected by the root hydraulic architecture, soil moisture conditions, soil hydraulic properties, and the transpiration demand as controlled by atmospheric conditions. Stomatal conductance plays a vital role in regulating transpiration in plants. We performed simulations of plant water uptake for plants having different mechanisms to control transpiration, spanned by isohydric/anisohydric spectrum. Isohydric plants follow the strategy to close their stomata in order to maintain the leaf water potential at a constant level, while anisohydric plants leave their stomata open when leaf water potentials fall due to drought stress. Modelling the stomatal regulation effectively will result in a more reliable model that will regulate the excessive loss of water. We implemented hydraulic and chemical stomatal control<br>of root water uptake following the current approach where stomatal control is regulated by simulated water potential and/or chemical signal concentration. In order to maintain water uptake from dry soil, low plant water potentials are required, which may lead to reversible or permanent cavitation. We parameterise our model with field data, including climate data and soil hydraulic properties under different tillage conditions. This helps us to understand the behaviour of different crops under drought conditions and predict at which growing stage the stress hits the plant. We conducted the simulations for different scenarios to study the effect of hydraulic and chemical regulation on root system performance under drought stress.</p>


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 913-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Schymanski ◽  
M. Sivapalan ◽  
M. L. Roderick ◽  
J. Beringer ◽  
L. B. Hutley

Abstract. The main processes determining soil moisture dynamics are infiltration, percolation, evaporation and root water uptake. Modelling soil moisture dynamics therefore requires an interdisciplinary approach that links hydrological, atmospheric and biological processes. Previous approaches treat either root water uptake rates or root distributions and transpiration rates as given, and calculate the soil moisture dynamics based on the theory of flow in unsaturated media. The present study introduces a different approach to linking soil water and vegetation dynamics, based on vegetation optimality. Assuming that plants have evolved mechanisms that minimise costs related to the maintenance of the root system while meeting their demand for water, we develop a model that dynamically adjusts the vertical root distribution in the soil profile to meet this objective. The model was used to compute the soil moisture dynamics, root water uptake and fine root respiration in a tropical savanna over 12 months, and the results were compared with observations at the site and with a model based on a fixed root distribution. The optimality-based model reproduced the main features of the observations such as a shift of roots from the shallow soil in the wet season to the deeper soil in the dry season and substantial root water uptake during the dry season. At the same time, simulated fine root respiration rates never exceeded the upper envelope determined by the observed soil respiration. The model based on a fixed root distribution, in contrast, failed to explain the magnitude of water use during parts of the dry season and largely over-estimated root respiration rates. The observed surface soil moisture dynamics were also better reproduced by the optimality-based model than the model based on a prescribed root distribution. The optimality-based approach has the potential to reduce the number of unknowns in a model (e.g. the vertical root distribution), which makes it a valuable alternative to more empirically-based approaches, especially for simulating possible responses to environmental change.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document