Incorporating a root water uptake model based on the hydraulic architecture approach in terrestrial systems simulations

Abstract A detailed representation of plant hydraulic traits and stomatal closure in land surface models (LSMs) is a prerequisite for improved predictions of ecosystem drought response. This work presents the integration of a macroscopic root water uptake (RWU) model based on the hydraulic architecture approach in the LSM of the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform. The novel RWU approach is based on three parameters derived from first principles that describe the root system equivalent conductance, the compensatory RWU conductance, and the leaf water potential at stomatal closure, which defines the water stress condition for the plants. The developed RWU model intrinsically accounts for changes in the root density as well as for the simulation of the hydraulic lift process. The standard and the new RWU approach are compared by performing point-scale simulations for cropland over a sheltered minirhizotron facility in Selhausen, Germany, and validated against transpiration fluxes estimated from sap flow and soil water content measurements at different depths. Numerical sensitivity experiments are carried out using different soil textures and root distributions in order to evaluate the interplay between soil hydrodynamics and plant characteristics, and the impact of assuming time-constant plant physiological properties. Results show a good agreement between simulated and observed transpiration fluxes for both RWU models, with a more distinct response under water stress conditions and with uncertainty in the soil parameterization prevailing to the differences due to changes in the model formulation. The hydraulic RWU model exhibits also a lower sensitivity to the root distributions when simulating the onset of the water stress period. Finally, an analysis of variability across the soil and root scenarios indicates that differences in soil water content are mainly influenced by the root distribution, while the transpiration flux in both RWU models is additionally determined by the soil characteristics.