Global patterns of water storage in the rooting zones of vegetation
University of Bern · Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research · +8 more institutions
Abstract
The rooting-zone water-storage capacity-the amount of water accessible to plants-controls the sensitivity of land-atmosphere exchange of water and carbon during dry periods. How the rooting-zone water-storage capacity varies spatially is largely unknown and not directly observable. Here we estimate rooting-zone water-storage capacity globally from the relationship between remotely sensed vegetation activity, measured by combining evapotranspiration, sun-induced fluorescence and radiation estimates, and the cumulative water deficit calculated from daily time series of precipitation and evapotranspiration. Our findings indicate plant-available water stores that exceed the storage capacity of 2-m-deep soils…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 27.22
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 62
Authors
6- BDBenjamin D. StockerCorresponding
University of Bern, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, ETH Zurich, Stanford University
- SJShersingh Joseph Tumber‐Dávila
Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Stanford University
- AGAlexandra G. Konings
Stanford University
- MCMartha C. Anderson
Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
- CHChristopher Hain
Marshall Space Flight Center
Topics & keywords
- Evapotranspiration
- Environmental science
- Water storage
- Biome
- Soil water
- Vegetation (pathology)
- Hydrology (agriculture)
- Precipitation
Funding
- SFSchmidt Futures
- NSNational Science FoundationAwards: DEB-1942133, 1942133
- UOUniversity of Bern
- NANational Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
- SNSchweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen ForschungAward: PCEFP2_181115
- UHUniversität Hamburg
- DODivision of Environmental BiologyAward: 1942133