An Overview of Water Movement in Groundwater-Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum with Shallow Water Table

It is of great significance to quantify water movement through interface between groundwater-soil-plant-atmosphere continuum(GSPAC),especially in the efficient utilization of water resource and the practicable solution to environmental issue.On the condition of shallow water table,groundwater,soil moisture,plant water and atmospheric water exchange continuously forming a continuum.An overview of advances in the mechanism of soil water movement,soil salt movement and their action to plant growth is presented first in this paper.Based on above-mentioned theoretical research,the advance in methods,experiments and simulation model about the water movement through GSPAC system,as well as the principle of these methods and their strength and weakness are summarized.Finally the author draws brief remarks that quantifying the action of shallow groundwater to SPAC system is a compound process,which is a weakness research direction being of integration and complexity,and should pay emphasis on for the future.The development of interface hydrology study could be very helpful to better understanding of hydrological cycle mechanism.At the last problems and the development direction in this field are presented.