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Soil Physical Properties, Processes, and Associated Root-Soil Interactions

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Dryland Ecohydrology

Abstract

The soil is the most upper part of the vadose zone, subject to fluctuations in water and chemical content by infiltration and leaching, water uptake by plant roots, and evaporation from the soil surface. It is the most dynamic, as changes occur at increasingly smaller time and spatial scales when moving from the groundwater toward the soil surface. Scientists are becoming increasingly aware that soils make up a critically important component of the earth’s biosphere, not only because of their food production function but also as the safe-keeper of local, regional, and global environmental quality. We first review soil physical properties and transport processes in soils. We then describe plant water and nutrient uptake modeling concepts in stressed soil environmental conditions and conclude with a comprehensive modeling framework for the simulation of water and nutrient transport in soils.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hydrology Program, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Jan W. Hopmans

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  1. Jan W. Hopmans
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Correspondence to Jan W. Hopmans .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Paolo D'Odorico

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Amilcare Porporato

  3. Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, USA

    Christiane Wilkinson Runyan

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Hopmans, J.W. (2019). Soil Physical Properties, Processes, and Associated Root-Soil Interactions. In: D'Odorico, P., Porporato, A., Wilkinson Runyan, C. (eds) Dryland Ecohydrology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23269-6_3

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