Abstract
Roots are responsible for the uptake of water and nutrients by plants and have the plasticity to dynamically respond to different environmental conditions. However, most land surface models currently prescribe rooting profiles as a function only of vegetation type, with no consideration of the surroundings. In this study, a dynamic rooting scheme, which describes root growth as a compromise between water and nitrogen availability, was incorporated into CLM4.5 with carbon–nitrogen (CN) interactions (CLM4.5-CN) to investigate the effects of a dynamic root distribution on eco-hydrological modeling. Two paired numerical simulations were conducted for the Tapajos National Forest km83 (BRSa3) site and the Amazon, one using CLM4.5-CN without the dynamic rooting scheme and the other including the proposed scheme. Simulations for the BRSa3 site showed that inclusion of the dynamic rooting scheme increased the amplitudes and peak values of diurnal gross primary production (GPP) and latent heat flux (LE) for the dry season, and improved the carbon (C) and water cycle modeling by reducing the RMSE of GPP by 0.4 g C m-2 d-1, net ecosystem exchange by 1.96 g C m-2 d-1, LE by 5.0 W m-2, and soil moisture by 0.03 m3 m-3, at the seasonal scale, compared with eddy flux measurements, while having little impact during the wet season. For the Amazon, regional analysis also revealed that vegetation responses (including GPP and LE) to seasonal drought and the severe drought of 2005 were better captured with the dynamic rooting scheme incorporated.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Avissar, R., P. L. S. Dias, M. A. F. S. Dias, and C. Nobre, 2002: The large-scale biosphere-atmosphere experiment in Amazonia (LBA): Insights and future research needs. J. Geophys. Res., 107(D20), LBA 54-1–LBA 54-6, doi: 10.1029/2002JD002704.
Baker, I. T., L. Prihodko, A. S. Denning, M. Goulden, S. Miller, and H. R. da Rocha, 2008: Seasonal drought stress in the Amazon: Reconciling models and observations. J. Geophys. Res., 113(G1), G00B01, doi: 10.1029/2007JG000644.
Barlage, M., and X. B. Zeng, 2004: Impact of observed vegetation root distribution on seasonal global simulations of land surface processes. J. Geophys. Res., 109, D09101, doi: 10.1029/2003JD003847.
Bonan, G. B., 1996: Land surface model (LSM version 1.0) for ecological, hydrological, and atmospheric studies: Technical description and user’s guide. Tech. Note NCAR/TN-417-STR, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo.
Canadell, J., R. B. Jackson, J. B. Ehleringer, H. A. Mooney, O. E. Sala, and E. D. Schulze, 1996: Maximum rooting depth of vegetation types at the global scale. Oecologia, 108(4), 583–595, doi: 10.1007/BF00329030.
Castillo, C. K. G., S. Levis, and P. Thornton, 2012. Evaluation of the new CNDV option of the Community Land Model: Effects of dynamic vegetation and interactive nitrogen on CLM4 means and variability. J. Climate, 25, 3702–3714.
Chen, J. L., C. R. Wilson, B. D. Tapley, Z. L. Yang, and G. Y. Niu, 2009: 2005 drought event in the Amazon River basin as measured by GRACE and estimated by climate models. J. Geophys. Res., 114, B05404, doi: 10.1029/2008JB006056.
Coelho, F. E., and D. Or, 1999. A model for soil water and matric potential distribution under drip irrigation with water extraction by roots. Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira, 34, 225–234.
Collins, D. B. G., and R. L. Bras, 2007: Plant rooting strategies in water-limited ecosystems. Water Resour. Res., 43, W06407, doi: 10.1029/2006WR005541.
Dickinson, R. E., M. Shaikh, R. Bryant, and L. Graumlich, 1998. Interactive canopies for a climate model. J. Climate, 11, 2823–2836.
Drewry, D. T., P. Kumar, S. Long, C. Bernacchi, X. Z. Liang, and M. Sivapalan, 2010: Ecohydrological responses of dense canopies to environmental variability: 1. Interplay between vertical structure and photosynthetic pathway. J. Geophys. Res., 115(G4), 1–25.
El Maayar, M., and O. Sonnentag, 2009: Crop model validation and sensitivity to climate change scenarios. Climate Research, 39(1), 47–59.
El Masri, B., S. J. Shu, and A. K. Jain, 2015: Implementation of a dynamic rooting depth and phenology into a land surface model: Evaluation of carbon, water, and energy fluxes in the high latitude ecosystems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 211–212, 85–99.
Fan, F. C., L. F. Zhang, Z. H. Li, S. Y. Liu, Y. F. Shi, and J. M. Jia, 2012: Response of root distribution of tomato to different irrigation methods in Greenhouse. Journal of Hebei Agricultural Sciences, 16(8), 36–40, 44. (in Chinese)
Feddes, R. A., and Coauthors, 2001. Modeling root water uptake in hydrological and climate models. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 82, 2797–2810.
Hatzis, J. J., 2010: The development of a dynamic root distribution for the Community Land Model with carbon-nitrogen interactions. M.S. thesis, Northern Illinois University, Di Kalb, 184 pp.
Hodge, A., 2004. The plastic plant: Root responses to heterogeneous supplies of nutrients. New Phytologist, 162, 9–24.
Hudiburg, T. W., B. E. Law, and P. E. Thornton, 2013. Evaluation and improvement of the Community Land Model (CLM4) in Oregon forests. Biogeosciences, 10, 453–470.
Hutchings, M. J., and H. de Kroon, 1994. Foraging in plants: The role of morphological plasticity in resource acquisition. Advances in Ecological Research, 25, 159–238.
Ichii, K., H. H. Hashimoto, M. A. White, C. Potter, L. R. Hutyra, A. R. Huete, R. B. Myneni, and R. R. Nemani, 2007. Constraining rooting depths in tropical rainforests using satellite data and ecosystem modeling for accurate simulation of gross primary production seasonality. Global Change Biology, 13, 67–77, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01277.x.
Ivanov, V. Y., R. L. Bras, and E. R. Vivoni, 2008: Vegetationhydrology dynamics in complex terrain of semiarid areas: 1. A mechanistic approach to modeling dynamic feedbacks. Water Resour. Res., 44, W03429, doi: 10.1029/2006WR005588.
Jackson, R. B., H. A. Mooney, and E. D. Schulze, 1997. A global budget for fine root biomass, surface area, and nutrient contents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 94, 7362–7366.
Jackson, R. B., J. Canadell, J. R. Ehleringer, H. A. Mooney, O. E. Sala, and E. D. Schulze, 1996. A global analysis of root distributions for terrestrial biomes. Oecologia, 108, 389–411.
Jing, C. Q., L. Li, X. Chen, and G. P. Luo, 2014. Comparison of root water uptake functions to simulate surface energy fluxes within a deep-rooted desert shrub ecosystem. Hydrological Processes, 28, 5436–5449.
Jung, M., M. Reichstein, and A. Bondeau, 2009. Towards global empirical upscaling of FLUXNET eddy covariance observations: Validation of a model tree ensemble approach using a biosphere model. Biogeosciences, 6, 2001–2013.
Jung, M., and Coauthors, 2011: Global patterns of landatmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide, latent heat, and sensible heat derived from eddy covariance, satellite, and meteorological observations. J. Geophys. Res., 116, G00J07, doi: 10.1029/2010JG001566.
Lai, C. T., and G. Katul, 2000. The dynamic role of root-water uptake in coupling potential to actual transpiration. Advances in Water Resources, 23, 427–439.
Lawrence, D. M., and Coauthors, 2011: Parameterization Improvements and Functional and Structural Advances in Version 4 of the Community Land Model. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 3, M03001.
Lawrence, P. J., and T. N. Chase, 2007: Representing a new MODIS consistent land surface in the Community Land Model (CLM 3.0). J. Geophys. Res., 112, G01023, doi: 10.1029/2006JG000168.
Le, P. V. V., P. Kumar, D. T. Drewry, and J. C. Quijano, 2012. A graphical user interface for numerical modeling of acclimation responses of vegetation to climate change. Computers & Geosciences, 49, 91–101, doi: 10.1016/j.cageo.2012.07.007.
Li, F., S. Levis, and D. S. Ward, 2013. Quantifying the role of fire in the Earth system-Part 1: Improved global fire modeling in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1). Biogeosciences, 10, 2293–2314, doi: 10.5194/bg-10-2293-2013.
Li, L. H., Y. P. Wang, Q. Yu, B. Pak, D. Eamus, J. Yan, E. van Gorsel, and I. T. Baker, 2012: Improving the responses of the Australian community land surface model (CABLE) to seasonal drought. J. Geophys. Res., 117, G04002, doi: 10.1029/2012JG002038.
Li, X. M., C. X. Xu, and S. M. Su, 1998: Affection of deep ditch manuring method to apple root system pattern in arid farming orchard. Acta Botanica Boreali-Occidentalia Sinica, 18(4), 590–594. (in Chinese)
Marthews, T. R., C. A. Quesada, D. R. Galbraith, Y. Malhi, C. E. Mullins, M. G. Hodnett, and I. Dharssi, 2014. Highresolution hydraulic parameter maps for surface soils in tropical South America. Geoscientific Model Development, 7, 711–723.
McMurtrie, R. E., C. M. Iversen, R. C. Dewar, B. E. Medlyn, T. Näsholm, D. A. Pepper, and R. J. Norby, 2012: Plant root distributions and nitrogen uptake predicted by a hypothesis of optimal root foraging. Ecology and Evolution, 2(6), 1235–1250.
Miguez-Macho, G., and Y. Fan, 2012: The role of groundwater in the Amazon water cycle: 2. Influence on seasonal soil moisture and evapotranspiration. J. Geophys. Res., 117, D15114, doi: 10.1029/2012JD017540.
Nepstad, D. C., and Coauthors, 1994. The role of deep roots in the hydrological and carbon cycles of Amazonian forests and pastures. Nature, 372, 666–669.
Oleson, K. W., and Coauthors, 2010: Technical description of version 4.0 of the Community Land Model (CLM). NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-478+STR, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 257 pp.
Oleson, K. W., and Coauthors, 2013: Technical description of version 4.5 of the Community Land Model (CLM). NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-503+STR, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 420 pp.
Ryel, R., M. Caldwell, C. Yoder, D. Or, and A. Leffler, 2002: Hydraulic redistribution in a stand of Artemisia tridentata: Evaluation of benefits to transpiration assessed with a simulation model. bdOecologia, 130(2), 173–184, doi: 10.1007/s004420100794.
Saleska, S. R., K. Didan, A. R. Huete, and H. R. da Rocha, 2007: Amazon forests green-up during 2005 drought. Science, 318, 612.
Schenk, H. J., 2008. The shallowest possible water extraction profile: A null model for global root distributions. Vadose Zone Journal, 7, 1119–1124.
Schenk, H. J. and R. B. Jackson, 2002: The global biogeography of roots. Ecological Monographs, 72(3), 311–328.
Shangguan, W., Y. J. Dai, Q. Y. Duan, B. Y. Liu, and H. Yuan, 2014. A global soil data set for earth system modeling. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 6, 249–263.
Sivandran, G., and R. L. Bras, 2013. Dynamic root distributions in ecohydrological modeling: A case study at Walnut Gulch ExperimentalWatershed. Water Resour. Res., 49, 3292–3305, doi: 10.1002/wrcr.20245.
Smithwick, E. A. H., M. S. Lucash, M. L. McCormack, and G. Sivandran, 2014. Improving the representation of roots in terrestrial models. Ecological Modelling, 291, 193–204.
Tomasella, J., M. G. Hodnett, L. A. Cuartas, A. D. Nobre, M. J. Waterloo, and S. M. Oliveira, 2008. The water balance of an Amazonian micro-catchment: The effect of interannual variability of rainfall on hydrological behaviour. Hydrological Processes, 22, 2133–2147, doi: 10.1002/hyp.6813.
Verhoef, A., and G. Egea, 2014. Modeling plant transpiration under limited soil water: Comparison of different plant and soil hydraulic parameterizations and preliminary implications for their use in land surface models. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 191, 22–32.
Viovy, N., 2011: CRUNCEP data set [Description available at http://dods.extra.cea.fr/data/p529viov/cruncep/readme.htm. Data available at http://dods.extra.cea.fr/store/p529viov/cruncep/V4 1901 2012/].
Warren, J. M., P. J. Hanson, C. M. Iversen, J. Kumar, A. P. Walker, and S. D. Wullschleger, 2015. Root structural and functional dynamics in terrestrial biosphere models-evaluation and recommendations. New Phytologist, 205, 59–78.
Weaver, J. E., 1926. Root Development of Field Crops. McGraw- Hill Book Co., New York & London, 291 pp.
White, M. A., P. E. Thornton, S. W. Running, and R. R. Nemani, 2000: Parameterization and sensitivity analysis of the Biome- BGC terrestrial ecosystem model: Net primary production controls. Earth Interactions, 4, 1–85.
Yan, B. Y., and R. E. Dickinson, 2014. Modeling hydraulic redistribution and ecosystem response to droughts over the Amazon basin using Community Land Model 4.0 (CLM4). J. Geophys. Res., 119, 2130–2143, doi: 10.1002/2014JG002694.
Yuan, X., and X. Z. Liang, 2011. Evaluation of a Conjunctive Surface-Subsurface Process model (CSSP) over the contiguous United States at regional-local scales. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 12, 579–599, doi: 10.1175/2010JHM1302.1.
Zeng, N., J. H. Yoon, J. A. Marengo, A. Subramaniam, C. A. Nobre, A. Mariotti, and J. D. Neelin, 2008: Causes and impacts of the 2005 Amazon drought. Environmental Research Letters, 3, 014002, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/3/1/014002.
Zeng, X. B., 2001: Global vegetation root distribution for land modeling. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2(5), 525–530.
Zeng, X. B., M. Shaikh, Y. J. Dai, R. E. Dickinson, and R. Myneni, 2002. Coupling of the common land model to the NCAR community climate model. J. Climate, 15, 1832–1854.
Zeng, X. B., Y. J. Dai, R. E. Dickinson, and M. Shaikh, 1998. The role of root distribution for climate simulation over land. Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 4533–4536.
Zheng, Z., and G. L. Wang, 2007: Modeling the dynamic root water uptake and its hydrological impact at the Reserva Jaru site in Amazonia. J. Geophys. Res., 112, G04012, doi: 10.1029/2007JG000413.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Y., Xie, Z. & Jia, B. Incorporation of a dynamic root distribution into CLM4.5: Evaluation of carbon and water fluxes over the Amazon. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 33, 1047–1060 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-016-5226-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-016-5226-8