HR: 10:35h
AN: H42A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Representation of Soil Moisture, Evapotranspiration, and Solute Transport Across Different Length and Time Scales
AU: * Celia, M A
EM: celia@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Rodriguez-Iturbe, I
EM: irodrigu@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Guswa, A J
EM: aguswa@email.smith.edu
AF: Smith College, Picker Engineering Program, Northampton, MA 01063 United States
AU: Nordbotten, J M
EM: janmn@mi.uib.no
AF: University of Bergen, Department of Mathematics, Bergen, 5008 Norway
AU: Puma, M J
EM: mpuma@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AB: In water-limited ecosystems, nonlinear interactions among soil, plants, and water, at the local scale, lead to complex functional relationships at larger spatial scales. The complexity includes non-uniqueness in upscaled relationships between total evaporation and average soil moisture, when upscaled variables are defined over spatial scales that are large relative to the scale of the original governing equations. This non-uniqueness can arise when water content is vertically averaged over the depth of the root zone, and when averaging is applied over larger horizontal spatial scales. Analytical solution methods can be used to predict and quantify some of the non-uniqueness, under appropriate simplifying assumptions required for the application of analytical methods. Numerical solutions allow for more general analyses and show more complex behavior patterns for systems with spatially and temporally variable rainfall, and spatially variable vegetation. When solute transport is added to the system, scaling effects in the moisture distribution and evapotranspiration function translate into complex functional relationships that apply to both contaminant transport and nutrient uptake. In this presentation, we will highlight the underlying causes of complexity and non-uniqueness, with a focus on estimates of water uptake functions, measures of plant health, and descriptions of nutrient transport in water-limited ecosystems.
DE: 1818 Evapotranspiration
DE: 1832 Groundwater transport
DE: 1851 Plant ecology
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1875 Unsaturated zone
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly