SWB Version 2.0—A soil-water-balance code for estimating net infiltration and other water-budget components

Westenbroek, Stephen M.; Engott, John A.; Kelson, Victor A.; Hunt, Randall J.

doi:10.3133/tm6a59

Cited by 46 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Plant water uptake is conceptually bound between thresholds when stomata are fully open, before which plant water uptake is maximum, and when stomata are fully closed, after which plant water uptake ceases. Plant water uptake thresholds have been incorporated into soil water‐limitation constraints on evaporation (Feddes et al, ), often termed β functions, and are used in many hydrological (Laio et al, ; Westenbroek et al, ), agricultural (Hlavinka et al, ; Steduto et al, ), and Earth system (Baker et al, ; Clark et al, ; Niu et al, ; Oleson et al, ) models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Water Uptake Thresholds Inferred From Satellite Soil Moisture

Bassiouni

Good

Still

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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Empirical functions are widely used in hydrological, agricultural, and Earth system models to parameterize plant water uptake. We infer soil water potentials at which uptake is downregulated from its well-watered rate and at which uptake ceases, in biomes with <60% woody vegetation at 36-km grid resolution. We estimate thresholds through Bayesian inference using a stochastic soil water balance framework to construct theoretical soil moisture probability distributions consistent with empirical distributions derived from satellite soil moisture observations. The global median Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency between empirical soil moisture distributions and theoretical distributions using reference constants, inferred median parameters per biome, and spatially variable inferred parameters are 0.38, 0.59, and 0.8, respectively. Spatially variable thresholds capture location-specific vegetation and climate characteristics and can be connected to biome-level water uptake strategies. Results demonstrate that satellite soil moisture probability distributions encode information, valuable to understanding biome-level ecohydrological adaptation and resistance to climate variability.Plain Language Summary Vegetation regulates a large fraction of the terrestrial water and carbon cycles as it adapts and responds to changing environmental conditions such as soil moisture availability, yet our ability to characterize diversity in vegetation soil water-use behavior at large scales is limited. In this study, we analyze satellite observations to estimate thresholds that are commonly used to approximate when vegetation extracts water from the soil. We show that the newly found values are more consistent with global patterns of soil moisture compared to constants found in the literature. Spatially variable plant water uptake thresholds reflect land cover and climate characteristics and can be connected to water-use strategies in biomes not dominated by trees.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Water Uptake Thresholds Inferred From Satellite Soil Moisture

Bassiouni

Good

Still

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…While evaluating the current understanding of projected climate for the Grand Canyon area is by itself a useful endeavor, integrating the combined effects of projected temperature and precipitation is required to understand possible future changes in groundwater infiltration in the area. To investigate the potential for projected climate effects on groundwater resources in the study area, projected climate data from the 97 CMIP5 ensemble members were used in the Soil-Water Balance (SWB) groundwater infiltration model 35 . The SWB model estimates potential groundwater infiltration by calculating water balance components using a modified version of the Thornthwaite-Mather 36,37 soil-water-balance approach (see Supplementary Text S1 for model details and limitations).…”

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confidence: 99%

Recent and projected precipitation and temperature changes in the Grand Canyon area with implications for groundwater resources

Tillman

Gangopadhyay

Pruitt

2020

Sci Rep

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Groundwater is a critical resource in the Grand Canyon region, supplying nearly all water needs for residents and millions of visitors. Additionally, groundwater discharging at hundreds of spring locations in and near Grand Canyon supports important ecosystems in this mostly arid environment. The security of groundwater supplies is of critical importance for both people and ecosystems in the region and the potential for changes to groundwater systems from projected climate change is a cause for concern. In this study, we analyze recent historical and projected precipitation and temperature data for the Grand Canyon region. Projected climate scenarios are then used in Soil Water Balance groundwater infiltration simulations to understand the state-of-the-science on projected changes to groundwater resources in the area. Historical climate data from 1896 through 2019 indicate multi-decadal cyclical patterns in both precipitation and temperature for most of the time period. Since the 1970s, however, a significant rising trend in temperature is observed in the area. All 10-year periods since 1993 are characterized by both below average precipitation and above average temperature. Downscaled and bias-corrected precipitation and temperature output from 97 CMIP5 global climate models for the water-year 2020–2099 time period indicate projected precipitation patterns similar to recent historical (water-year 1951–2015) data. Projected temperature for the Grand Canyon area, however, is expected to rise by as much as 3.4 °C by the end of the century, relative to the recent historical average. Integrating the effects of projected precipitation and temperature changes on groundwater infiltration, simulation results indicate that > 76% of future decades will experience average potential groundwater infiltration less than that of the recent historical period.

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“…Island-wide water discharge rates from all three hydrologic pathways Annual resolution, island-wide water discharge rates to the coastal zone were estimated for all hydrologic pathways (i.e., stream baseflow, surface runoff and groundwater discharge) using an existing water budget model developed for Tutuila (Shuler and El-Kadi 2018). The water budget model used the Soil-Water Balance 2 (SWB2) code (Westenbroek et al 2018). The SWB2 model originally developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)is based on the soil-water balance formulation originally developed by Thornthwaite-Mather (1955).…”

Section: Modeling Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ridge to Reef Management Implications for the Development of an Open-Source Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen Loading Model in American Samoa

Shuler

Comeros-Raynal

2020

Preprint

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Excessive nutrient discharge to tropical island coastlines drives eutrophication and algal blooms with significant implications for reef ecosystem condition and provision of ecosystem services.Management actions to address nutrient pollution in coastal ecosystems include setting water quality standards for discharging surface waters. However, these standards do not account for the effects of groundwater discharge, variability in flow, or dilution, all of which may influence assessment of true nutrient impacts on nearshore reef habitats. We developed a method to estimate dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) loads to coastal zones by integrating commonly available datasets within a geospatial modeling framework for Tutuila, American Samoa. The DIN loading model integrated an open-source water budget model, water sampling results, and publically available streamflow data to predict watershed-scale DIN loading to the island's entire coastline. When compared to surface water pathways, submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) was determined to be the most important coastal delivery mechanism of terrigenous DIN, which supports findings from other tropical islands. Onsite wastewater disposal systems were also found to be the primary anthropogenic sources DIN to coastal waters. Our island-wide DIN loading model provides a simple and robust metric to define spatially-explicit sources and delivery mechanisms of nutrient pollution to nearshore reef habitats. Understanding the sources and primary transport modes of inorganic nitrogen to nearshore reef ecosystems can have significant implications for place-based management interventions aimed at increasing the adaptive capacity of unique island ecosystems to environmental variation and disturbances.

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SWB Version 2.0—A soil-water-balance code for estimating net infiltration and other water-budget components

Cited by 46 publications

References 13 publications

Plant Water Uptake Thresholds Inferred From Satellite Soil Moisture

Plant Water Uptake Thresholds Inferred From Satellite Soil Moisture

Recent and projected precipitation and temperature changes in the Grand Canyon area with implications for groundwater resources

Ridge to Reef Management Implications for the Development of an Open-Source Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen Loading Model in American Samoa

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