An optimality-based model of the coupled soil moisture and root dynamics

The main processes determining soil moisture dynamics are infiltration, percolation, evaporation and root water uptake. Modelling soil moisture dynamics therefore requires an interdisciplinary approach that links hydrological, atmospheric and biological processes. Previous approaches treat either root water uptake rates or root distributions and transpiration rates as given, and calculate the soil moisture dynamics based on the theory of flow in unsaturated media. The present study introduces a different approach to linking soil water and vegetation dynamics, based on vegetation optimality. Assuming that plants have evolved mechanisms that minimise costs related to the maintenance of the root system while meeting their demand for water, we develop a model that dynamically adjusts the vertical root distribution in the soil profile to meet this objective. The model was used to compute the soil moisture dynamics, root water uptake and fine root respiration in a tropical savanna over 12 months, and the results were compared with observations at the site and with a model based on a fixed root distribution. The optimality-based model reproduced the main features of the observations such as a shift of roots from the shallow soil in the wet season to the deeper soil in the dry season and substantial root water uptake during the dry season. At the same time, simulated fine root respiration rates never exceeded the upper envelope determined by the observed soil respiration. The model based on a fixed root distribution, in contrast, failed to explain the magnitude of water use during parts of the dry season and largely over-estimated root respiration rates. The observed surface soil moisture dynamics were also better reproduced by the optimality-based model than the model based on a prescribed root distribution. The optimality-based approach has the potential to reduce the number of unknowns in a model (e.g. the vertical root distribution), which makes it a valuable alternative to more empirically-based approaches, especially for simulating possible responses to environmental change

An optimality-based model of the dynamic feedbacks between natural vegetation and the water balance

The hypothesis that vegetation adapts optimally to its environment gives rise to a novel framework for modeling the interactions between vegetation dynamics and the catchment water balance that does not rely on prior knowledge about the vegetation at a particular site. We present a new model based on this framework that includes a multilayered physically based catchment water balance model and an ecophysiological gas exchange and photosynthesis model. The model uses optimization algorithms to find those static and dynamic vegetation properties that would maximize the net carbon profit under given environmental conditions. The model was tested at a savanna site near Howard Springs (Northern Territory, Australia) by comparing the modeled fluxes and vegetation properties with long-term observations at the site. The results suggest that optimality may be a useful way of approaching the prediction and estimation of vegetation cover, rooting depth, and fluxes such as transpiration and CO2 assimilation in ungauged basins without model calibration

N2O, NO, N2, and CO2 emissions from tropical savanna and grassland of Northern Australia: an incubation experiment with intact soil cores

Strong seasonal variability of hygric and thermal soil conditions are a defining environmental feature in northern Australia. However, how such changes affect the soil-atmosphere exchange of nitrous oxide (N2O), nitric oxide (NO) and dinitrogen (N2) is still not well explored. By incubating intact soil cores from four sites (three savanna, one pasture) under controlled soil temperatures (ST) and soil moisture (SM) we investigated the release of the trace gas fluxes of N2O, NO and carbon dioxide (CO2). Furthermore, the release of N2 due to denitrification was measured using the helium gas flow soil core technique. Under dry pre-incubation conditions NO and N2O emissions were very low (<7.0 ± 5.0 müg NO-N m-2 h-1; <0.0 ± 1.4 müg N2O-N m-2 h-1) or in the case of N2O, even a net soil uptake was observed. Substantial NO (max: 306.5 müg N m-2 h-1) and relatively small N2O pulse emissions (max: 5.8 ± 5.0 &müg N m-2 h-1) were recorded following soil wetting, but these pulses were short lived, lasting only up to 3 days. The total atmospheric loss of nitrogen was generally dominated by N2 emissions (82.4-99.3% of total N lost), although NO emissions contributed almost 43.2% to the total atmospheric nitrogen loss at 50% SM and 30 °C ST incubation settings (the contribution of N2 at these soil conditions was only 53.2%). N2O emissions were systematically higher for 3 of 12 sample locations, which indicates substantial spatial variability at site level, but on average soils acted as weak N2O sources or even sinks. By using a conservative upscale approach we estimate total annual emissions from savanna soils to average 0.12 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (N2O), 0.68 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (NO) and 6.65 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (N2). The analysis of long-term SM and ST records makes it clear that extreme soil saturation that can lead to high N2O and N2 emissions only occurs a few days per year and thus has little impact on the annual total. The potential contribution of nitrogen released due to pulse events compared to the total annual emissions was found to be of importance for NO emissions (contribution to total: 5-22%), but not for N2O emissions. Our results indicate that the total gaseous release of nitrogen from these soils is low and clearly dominated by loss in the form of inert nitrogen. Effects of seasonally varying soil temperature and moisture were detected, but were found to be low due to the small amounts of available nitrogen in the soils (total nitrogen <0.1%)

Coupling carbon allocation with leaf and root phenology predicts tree-grass partitioning along a savanna rainfall gradient

© Author(s) 2016. The relative complexity of the mechanisms underlying savanna ecosystem dynamics, in comparison to other biomes such as temperate and tropical forests, challenges the representation of such dynamics in ecosystem and Earth system models. A realistic representation of processes governing carbon allocation and phenology for the two defining elements of savanna vegetation (namely trees and grasses) may be a key to understanding variations in tree-grass partitioning in time and space across the savanna biome worldwide. Here we present a new approach for modelling coupled phenology and carbon allocation, applied to competing tree and grass plant functional types. The approach accounts for a temporal shift between assimilation and growth, mediated by a labile carbohydrate store. This is combined with a method to maximize long-term net primary production (NPP) by optimally partitioning plant growth between fine roots and (leaves + stem). The computational efficiency of the analytic method used here allows it to be uniquely and readily applied at regional scale, as required, for example, within the framework of a global biogeochemical model. We demonstrate the approach by encoding it in a new simple carbon-water cycle model that we call HAVANA (Hydrology and Vegetation-dynamics Algorithm for Northern Australia), coupled to the existing POP (Population Orders Physiology) model for tree demography and disturbance-mediated heterogeneity. HAVANA-POP is calibrated using monthly remotely sensed fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) and eddy-covariance-based estimates of carbon and water fluxes at five tower sites along the North Australian Tropical Transect (NATT), which is characterized by large gradients in rainfall and wildfire disturbance. The calibrated model replicates observed gradients of fPAR, tree leaf area index, basal area, and foliage projective cover along the NATT. The model behaviour emerges from complex feedbacks between the plant physiology and vegetation dynamics, mediated by shifting above- versus below-ground resources, and not from imposed hypotheses about the controls on tree-grass co-existence. Results support the hypothesis that resource limitation is a stronger determinant of tree cover than disturbance in Australian savannas

Intrinsic climate dependency of ecosystem light and water-use-efficiencies across Australian biomes

© 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd. The sensitivity of ecosystem gross primary production (GPP) to availability of water and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) differs among biomes. Here we investigated variations of ecosystem light-use-efficiency (eLUE: GPP/PAR) and water-use-efficiency (eWUE: GPP/evapotranspiration) among seven Australian eddy covariance sites with differing annual precipitation, species composition and temperature. Changes to both eLUE and eWUE were primarily correlated with atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) at multiple temporal scales across biomes, with minor additional correlations observed with soil moisture and temperature. The effects of leaf area index on eLUE and eWUE were also relatively weak compared to VPD, indicating an intrinsic dependency of eLUE and eWUE on climate. Additionally, eLUE and eWUE were statistically different for biomes between summer and winter, except eWUE for savannas and the grassland. These findings will improve our understanding of how light- and water-use traits in Australian ecosystems may respond to climate change

Coupling carbon allocation with leaf and root phenology predicts tree-grass partitioning along a savanna rainfall gradient

Abstract. The relative complexity of the mechanisms underlying savanna ecosystem dynamics, in comparison to other biomes such as temperate and tropical forests, challenges the representation of such dynamics in ecosystem and Earth system models. A realistic representation of processes governing carbon allocation and phenology for the two defining elements of savanna vegetation (namely trees and grasses) may be a key to understanding variations in tree/grass partitioning in time and space across the savanna biome worldwide. Here we present a new approach for modelling coupled phenology and carbon allocation, applied to competing tree and grass plant functional types. The approach accounts for a temporal shift between assimilation and growth, mediated by a labile carbohydrate store. This is combined with a method to maximise long-term net primary production (NPP) by optimally partitioning plant growth between fine roots and (leaves + stem). The computational efficiency of the analytic method used here allows it to be uniquely and readily applied at regional scale, as required, for example, within the framework of a global biogeochemical model. We demonstrate the approach by encoding it in a new simple carbon/water cycle model that we call HAVANA (Hydrology and Vegetation-dynamics Algorithm for Northern Australia), coupled to the existing POP (Population Orders Physiology) model for tree demography and disturbance-mediated heterogeneity. HAVANA-POP is calibrated using monthly remotely-sensed fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) and eddy-covariance-based estimates of carbon and water fluxes at 5 tower sites along the Northern Australian Tropical Transect (NATT), which is characterized by large gradients in rainfall and wildfire disturbance. The calibrated model replicates observed gradients of fPAR, tree leaf area index, basal area and foliage projective cover along the NATT. The model behaviour emerges from complex feed-backs between the plant physiology and vegetation dynamics, mediated by shifting above- vs. below-ground resources, and not from imposed hypotheses about the controls on tree/grass co-existence. Results support the hypothesis that resource limitation is a stronger determinant of tree cover than disturbance in Australian savannas. </jats:p

Responses of LAI to rainfall explain contrasting sensitivities to carbon uptake between forest and non-forest ecosystems in Australia

© 2017 The Author(s). Non-forest ecosystems (predominant in semi-arid and arid regions) contribute significantly to the increasing trend and interannual variation of land carbon uptake over the last three decades, yet the mechanisms are poorly understood. By analysing the flux measurements from 23 ecosystems in Australia, we found the the correlation between gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) was significant for non-forest ecosystems, but was not for forests. In non-forest ecosystems, both GPP and Re increased with rainfall, and, consequently net ecosystem production (NEP) increased with rainfall. In forest ecosystems, GPP and Re were insensitive to rainfall. Furthermore sensitivity of GPP to rainfall was dominated by the rainfall-driven variation of LAI rather GPP per unit LAI in non-forest ecosystems, which was not correctly reproduced by current land models, indicating that the mechanisms underlying the response of LAI to rainfall should be targeted for future model development

Coupling carbon allocation with leaf and root phenology predicts tree-grass partitioning along a savanna rainfall gradient

The relative complexity of the mechanisms underlying savanna ecosystem dynamics, in comparison to other biomes such as temperate and tropical forests, challenges the representation of such dynamics in ecosystem and Earth system models. A realistic representation of processes governing carbon allocation and phenology for the two defining elements of savanna vegetation (namely trees and grasses) may be a key to understanding variations in tree–grass partitioning in time and space across the savanna biome worldwide. Here we present a new approach for modelling coupled phenology and carbon allocation, applied to competing tree and grass plant functional types. The approach accounts for a temporal shift between assimilation and growth, mediated by a labile carbohydrate store. This is combined with a method to maximize long-term net primary production (NPP) by optimally partitioning plant growth between fine roots and (leaves + stem). The computational efficiency of the analytic method used here allows it to be uniquely and readily applied at regional scale, as required, for example, within the framework of a global biogeochemical model. We demonstrate the approach by encoding it in a new simple carbon–water cycle model that we call HAVANA (Hydrology and Vegetation-dynamics Algorithm for Northern Australia), coupled to the existing POP (Population Orders Physiology) model for tree demography and disturbance-mediated heterogeneity. HAVANA-POP is calibrated using monthly remotely sensed fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) and eddy-covariance-based estimates of carbon and water fluxes at five tower sites along the North Australian Tropical Transect (NATT), which is characterized by large gradients in rainfall and wildfire disturbance. The calibrated model replicates observed gradients of fPAR, tree leaf area index, basal area, and foliage projective cover along the NATT. The model behaviour emerges from complex feedbacks between the plant physiology and vegetation dynamics, mediated by shifting above- versus below-ground resources, and not from imposed hypotheses about the controls on tree–grass co-existence. Results support the hypothesis that resource limitation is a stronger determinant of tree cover than disturbance in Australian savannas.The contributions of V. Haverd and P. Briggs were made possible by the support of the Australian Climate Change Science Program. B. Smith acknowledges funding as an OCE Distinguished Visiting Scientist to the CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, Canberr