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Project Detail

Representing root system architecture in terrestrial models to increase accuracy of prediction of plant water uptake and soil moisture in future climate

Name:	Representing root system architecture in terrestrial models to increase accuracy of prediction of plant water uptake and soil moisture in future climate
Researchers:	Bouda Martin (head – principal researcher)
Provider:	Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, OP VVV
Number:	EF18_070/0009075
Realization from:	2019
Realization to:	2021
Summary:	Terrestrial models (TM) aim to predict the heat, carbon, and water budgets at the Earth’s surface as a lower boundary condition for atmospheric modelling. This proposal aims to improve the description of soil-plant-atmosphere continuum hydraulics in TMs by addressing a persistent problem: the lack of representation of the effects of Root System Architecture (RSA) and soil moisture heterogeneity on water potential gradients in root systems. The recently developed RSA Stencil is a model that bridges the gap between micro- and macro-scale descriptions of root water uptake at trivial computational cost. This project will: (1) integrate RSA Stencil code into a widely-used European TM (SurfEx, part of the ARPEGE-Climat model), (2) calibrate the upgraded model using ICOS ecosystem observatory time-series of soil moisture, sapflow and transpiration, using vegetation functional traits to define requisite plant functional types (PFT), and (3) run forward simulations with the improved model to obtain updated predictions of soil moisture dynamics and other climate variables. The success of this work would transform the way root water uptake is represented at larger scales, improving predictions of vegetation water uptake, soil moisture dynamics, land surface fluxes under water-limited (drought) conditions, and climate-vegetation feedbacks, as well as downstream phenomena such as saturation-dependent soil biogeochemistry. As climate change increases drought incidence and intensity across Europe, improving representations of water limitation in TMs is all the more important. These model improvements will also directly benefit policymaking efforts to adapt landscape management to increased drought that is expected to severely impact many European citizens and most economic sectors.