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Impacts of hydraulic redistribution on eco-hydrological cycles: A case study over the Amazon basin

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Abstract

Hydraulic redistribution (HR) refers to the process of soil water transport through the low-resistance pathway provided by plant roots. It has been observed in field studies and proposed to be one of the processes that enable plants to resist water limitations. However, most land-surface models (LSMs) currently do not include this underground root process. In this study, a HR scheme was incorporated into the Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) to investigate the effect of HR on the eco-hydrological cycle. Two paired numerical simulations (with and without the new HR scheme) were conducted for the Tapajos National Forest km83 (BRSa3) site and the Amazon. Simulations for the BRSa3 site in the Amazon showed that HR during the wet season was small, <0.1 mm day–1, transferring water from shallow wet layers to deep dry layers at night; however, HR in the dry season was more obvious, up to 0.3 mm day–1, transferring water from deep wet layers to shallow dry layers at night. By incorporating HR into CLM4.5, the new model increased gross primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) by 10% and 15%, respectively, at the BRSa3 site, partly overcoming the underestimation. For the Amazon, regional analysis also revealed that vegetation responses (including GPP and ET) to seasonal drought and the severe drought of 2005 were better captured with the HR scheme incorporated.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0600203), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDY-SSW-DQC012), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41575096).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Meteorological Observatory, Beijing, 100089, China

    Yuanyuan Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yuanyuan Wang, Binghao Jia & Zhenghui Xie

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  1. Yuanyuan Wang
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  2. Binghao Jia
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Correspondence to Binghao Jia.

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Wang, Y., Jia, B. & Xie, Z. Impacts of hydraulic redistribution on eco-hydrological cycles: A case study over the Amazon basin. Sci. China Earth Sci. 61, 1330–1340 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9219-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9219-5

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