Improving Terrestrial Carbon and Water Simulations with Dynamic Root Distribution over the Amazon Basin

Realistic representation of roots and their behavior are important in hydrological, ecological and climate modeling. However, land surface models currently prescribe rooting profiles as a function of only the plant functional types, with no consideration of the dynamic rooting strategies in response to the changing environments. In this study, a new dynamic rooting scheme which taking the controlling effects of soil water and nitrogen on rooting strategies into account was incorporated into the version 4.5 of the Community Land Model with carbon-nitrogen interactions (CLM4.5-CN). Two pairs of experiments were conducted to study the effects of dynamic root distribution on eco-hydrological modeling for the Tapajos National Forest km83 (BRSa3) site and the Amazon Basin. For site-level comparisons, the dynamic rooting scheme can improve the carbon and water cycle modeling by reducing the root-mean-square error (RMSE) in gross primary production (GPP) by 0.4 g C m-2 day-1, net ecosystem exchange (NEE) by 1.96 g C m-2 day-1, latent heat (LE) by 5.0 W m-2, soil moisture (SM) by 0.03 m3 m-3. In the Amazon basin, the vegetation responses (including GPP and LE) to seasonal drought and server 2005 drought are also better captured with dynamic root distribution incorporated.