Big root approximation of site-scale vegetation water uptake

Abstract

Land 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 Ohms law analogue plant hydraulic models. Structural error due to inadequate representation of root system architecture (RSA) in both Ohms 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.