HR: 1330h
AN: H42D-1109    [PDF]
TI: On The Soil Moisture Dynamics: Does Simplification Alter Soil Moisture Prediction?
AU: * Manfreda, S
EM: manfreda@cima.unige.it
AF: University of Basilicata, Campus c.da Macchia Romana, Potenza, ITA 85100 Italy
AU: Caylor, K
AF: Princeton University, E-Quad, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Rodriguez-Iturbe, I
AF: Princeton University, E-Quad, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AB: The soil moisture dynamics of water controlled ecosystems are governed by complex interactions between vegetation, soils and climate. Recent research has achieved significant results in the description of such dynamics through the development of a steady state probability density function (pdf) of the soil moisture [Rodriguez-Iturbe et al., 1999 and Laio et al., 2001]. The assumptions of this model are necessarily oriented to simplify the mathematical form of the soil loss function and the rainfall process. In order to asses the effect of these simplifying assumptions, we incorporated alternative representations of leakage, infiltration, and rainfall into the existing model introduced by Rodriguez-Iturbe et al. [1999]. The mean and variance of the soil moisture pdf obtained using numerical simulation of four different schemes are compared across a range of climate, soil, and vegetation combinations. The analysis finds that the previous model agrees well with the alternative representations for many cases, but that significant differences can occur. Results are considered to be of interest for both ecohydrological studies and hydrological analysis.
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 1851 Plant ecology
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting