Shallow Subsurface Soil Moisture Dynamics in the Root-Zone and Bulk Soil of Sparsely Vegetated Land Surfaces as Impacted by Near-Surface Atmospheric State

Abstract:

Soil moisture is a fundamental state variable that provides the water necessary for plant growth and evapotranspiration. Soil moisture has been extensively studied in the context of bare surface soils and root zones. Less attention has focused on the effects of sparse vegetation distributions, such as those typical of agricultural cropland and other natural surface environments, on soil moisture dynamics. The current study explores root zone, bulk soil, and near-surface atmosphere interactions in terms of soil moisture under different distributions of sparse vegetation using multi-scale laboratory experimentation and numerical simulation. This research is driven by the need to advance our fundamental understanding of soil moisture dynamics in the context of improving water conservation and next generation heat and mass transfer numerical models. Experimentation is performed in a two-dimensional 7.3 m long intermediate scale soil tank interfaced with a climate-controlled wind tunnel, both of which are outfitted with current sensor technologies for measuring atmospheric and soil variables. The soil tank is packed so that a sparsely vegetated soil is surrounded by bulk bare soil; the two regions are separated by porous membranes to isolate the root zone from the bulk soil. Results show that in the absence of vegetation, evaporation rates vary along the soil tank in response to longitudinal changes in humidity; soil dries fastest upstream where evaporation rates are highest. In the presence of vegetation, soil moisture in the bulk soil closest to a vegetated region decreases more rapidly than the bulk soil farther away. Evapotranspiration rates in this region are also higher than the bulk soil region. This study is the first step towards the development of more generalized models that account for non-uniformly distributed vegetation and land surfaces exhibiting micro-topology.