scholarly journals Stable water isotopes in the coupled atmosphere–land surface model ECHAM5-JSBACH

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1463-1480 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Haese ◽  
M. Werner ◽  
G. Lohmann

Abstract. In this study we present first results of a new model development, ECHAM5-JSBACH-wiso, where we have incorporated the stable water isotopes H218O and HDO as tracers in the hydrological cycle of the coupled atmosphere–land surface model ECHAM5-JSBACH. The ECHAM5-JSBACH-wiso model was run under present-day climate conditions at two different resolutions (T31L19, T63L31). A comparison between ECHAM5-JSBACH-wiso and ECHAM5-wiso shows that the coupling has a strong impact on the simulated temperature and soil wetness. Caused by these changes of temperature and the hydrological cycle, the δ18O in precipitation also shows variations from −4‰ up to 4‰. One of the strongest anomalies is shown over northeast Asia where, due to an increase of temperature, the δ18O in precipitation increases as well. In order to analyze the sensitivity of the fractionation processes over land, we compare a set of simulations with various implementations of these processes over the land surface. The simulations allow us to distinguish between no fractionation, fractionation included in the evaporation flux (from bare soil) and also fractionation included in both evaporation and transpiration (from water transport through plants) fluxes. While the isotopic composition of the soil water may change for δ18O by up to +8&permil:, the simulated δ18O in precipitation shows only slight differences on the order of ±1‰. The simulated isotopic composition of precipitation fits well with the available observations from the GNIP (Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation) database.

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 3375-3418
Author(s):  
B. Haese ◽  
M. Werner ◽  
G. Lohmann

Abstract. In this study we present first results of a new model development, ECHAM5-JSBACH-wiso, where we have incorporated the stable water isotopes H218O and HDO as tracers in the hydrological cycle of the coupled atmosphere–land surface model ECHAM5-JSBACH. The ECHAM5-JSBACH-wiso model was run under present-day climate conditions at two different resolutions (T31L19, T63L31). A comparison between ECHAM5-JSBACH-wiso and ECHAM5-wiso shows that the coupling has a strong impact on the simulated temperature and soil wetness. Caused by these changes of temperature and the hydrological cycle, the δ18O in precipitation also shows variations from −4.5‰ up to 4.5‰. One of the clearest anomalies is shown over North-East Asia where, depending on an increase of temperature, the δ18O in precipitation increases as well. In order to analyze the sensitivity of the fractionation processes over land, we compare a set of simulations with various implementations of water isotope fractionation processes over the land surface. The simulations allow us to distinguish between no fractionation, fractionation included in the evaporation flux (from bare soil) and also fractionation included in both evaporation and transpiration (from water transport through plants) fluxes. The simulated δ18O and δD in precipitation of these setups generally fit well with the observations and the best agreement between observation and simulation is given in the case where no fractionation over land surface is assumed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 90-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kei Yoshimura ◽  
Shin Miyazaki ◽  
Shinjiro Kanae ◽  
Taikan Oki

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengyuan Mu ◽  
Martin De Kauwe ◽  
Anna Ukkola ◽  
Andy Pitman ◽  
Teresa Gimeno ◽  
...  

<p>Land surface models underpin coupled climate model projections of droughts and heatwaves. However, the lack of simultaneous observations of individual components of evapotranspiration, concurrent with root-zone soil moisture, has limited previous model evaluations. Here, we use a comprehensive set of observations from a water-limited site in southeastern Australia including both evapotranspiration and soil moisture to a depth of 4.5 m to evaluate the Community Atmosphere-Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) land surface model. We demonstrate that alternative process representations within CABLE had the capacity to improve simulated evapotranspiration, but not necessarily soil moisture dynamics - highlighting problems of model evaluations against water fluxes alone. Our best simulation was achieved by resolving a soil evaporation bias; a more realistic initialisation of the groundwater aquifer state; higher vertical soil resolution informed by observed soil properties; and further calibrating soil hydraulic conductivity. Despite these improvements, the role of the empirical soil moisture stress function in influencing the simulated water fluxes remained important: using a site calibrated function reduced the soil water stress on plants by 36 % during drought and 23 % at other times. These changes in CABLE not only improve the seasonal cycle of evapotranspiration, but also affect the latent and sensible heat fluxes during droughts and heatwaves. The range of parameterisations tested led to differences of ~150 W m<sup>-2</sup> in the simulated latent heat flux during a heatwave, implying a strong impact of parameterisations on the capacity for evaporative cooling and feedbacks to the boundary layer (when coupled). Overall, our results highlight the opportunity to advance the capability of land surface models to capture water cycle processes, particularly during meteorological extremes, when sufficient observations of both evapotranspiration fluxes and soil moisture profiles are available.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Arduini ◽  
Ervin Zsoter ◽  
Hannah Cloke ◽  
Elisabeth Stephens ◽  
Christel Prudhomme

<p>Snow processes, with the water stored in the snowpack and released as snowmelt, are very important components of the water balance, in particular in high latitude and mountain regions. The evolution of the snow cover and the timing of the snow melt can have major impact on river discharge. Land surface models are used in Earth System models to compute exchanges of water, energy and momentum between the atmosphere and the surface underneath, and also to compute other components of the hydrological cycle. In order to improve the snow representation, a new multi-layer snow scheme is under development in the HTESSEL land surface model of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), to replace the current single-layer snow scheme used in HTESSEL. The new scheme has already been shown to improve snow and 2‐metre temperature, while in this study, the wider hydrological impact is evaluated and documented.</p><p>The analysis is done in the reanalysis context by comparing two ERA5-forced offline HTESSEL experiments. The runoff output of HTESSEL is coupled to the CaMa-Flood hydrodynamic model in order to derive river discharge. The analysis is done globally for the period between 1980-2018. The evaluation was carried out using over 1000 discharge observation time-series with varying catchment size. The hydrological response of the multi-layer snow scheme is generally positive, but in some areas the improvement is not clear and can even be negative with deteriorated signal in river discharge. Further investigation is needed to understand the complex hydrological impact of the new snow scheme, making sure it contributes to an improved description of all hydrological components of the Earth System.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Wang-Erlandsson ◽  
R. J. van der Ent ◽  
L. J. Gordon ◽  
H. H. G. Savenije

Abstract. Moisture recycling, the contribution of terrestrial evaporation to precipitation, has important implications for both water and land management. Although terrestrial evaporation consists of different fluxes (i.e. transpiration, vegetation interception, floor interception, soil moisture evaporation, and open-water evaporation), moisture recycling (terrestrial evaporation–precipitation feedback) studies have up to now only analysed their combined total. This paper constitutes the first of two companion papers that investigate the characteristics and roles of different evaporation fluxes for land–atmosphere interactions. Here, we investigate the temporal characteristics of partitioned evaporation on land and present STEAM (Simple Terrestrial Evaporation to Atmosphere Model) – a hydrological land-surface model developed to provide inputs to moisture tracking. STEAM estimates a mean global terrestrial evaporation of 73 900 km3 year-1, of which 59% is transpiration. Despite a relatively simple model structure, validation shows that STEAM produces realistic evaporative partitioning and hydrological fluxes that compare well with other global estimates over different locations, seasons, and land-use types. Using STEAM output, we show that the terrestrial residence timescale of transpiration (days to months) has larger inter-seasonal variation and is substantially longer than that of interception (hours). Most transpiration occurs several hours or days after a rain event, whereas interception is immediate. In agreement with previous research, our simulations suggest that the vegetation's ability to transpire by retaining and accessing soil moisture at greater depth is critical for sustained evaporation during the dry season. We conclude that the differences in temporal characteristics between evaporation fluxes are substantial and reasonably can cause differences in moisture recycling, which is investigated more in the companion paper (van der Ent et al., 2014, hereafter Part 2).


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1807-1819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Qiuhong Tang ◽  
Deliang Chen

Abstract Evidence has suggested a wetting trend over part of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in recent decades, although there are large uncertainties in this trend due to sparse observations. Examining the change in the moisture source for precipitation over a region in the TP with the most obvious increasing precipitation trend may help understand the precipitation change. This study applied the modified Water Accounting Model with two atmospheric reanalyses, ground-observed precipitation, and evaporation from a land surface model to investigate the change in moisture source of the precipitation over the targeted region. The study estimated that on average more than 69% and more than 21% of the moisture supply to precipitation over the targeted region came from land and ocean, respectively. The moisture transports from the west of the TP by the westerlies and from the southwest by the Indian summer monsoon likely contributed the most to precipitation over the targeted region. The moisture from inside the region may have contributed about 18% of the total precipitation. Most of the increased moisture supply to the precipitation during 1979–2013 was attributed to the enhanced influx from the southwest and the local moisture supply. The precipitation recycling ratio over the targeted region increased significantly, suggesting an intensified hydrological cycle. Further analysis at monthly scale and with wet–dry-year composites indicates that the increased moisture contribution was mainly from the southwest and the targeted region during May and September. The enhanced water vapor transport from the Indian Ocean during July and September and the intensified local hydrological recycling seem to be the primary reasons behind the recent precipitation increase over the targeted region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 447-471
Author(s):  
Mengyuan Mu ◽  
Martin G. De Kauwe ◽  
Anna M. Ukkola ◽  
Andy J. Pitman ◽  
Teresa E. Gimeno ◽  
...  

Abstract. Land surface models underpin coupled climate model projections of droughts and heatwaves. However, the lack of simultaneous observations of individual components of evapotranspiration, concurrent with root-zone soil moisture, has limited previous model evaluations. Here, we use a comprehensive set of observations from a water-limited site in southeastern Australia including both evapotranspiration and soil moisture to a depth of 4.5 m to evaluate the Community Atmosphere-Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) land surface model. We demonstrate that alternative process representations within CABLE had the capacity to improve simulated evapotranspiration, but not necessarily soil moisture dynamics–highlighting problems of model evaluations against water fluxes alone. Our best simulation was achieved by resolving a soil evaporation bias, using a more realistic initialisation of the groundwater aquifer state and higher vertical soil resolution informed by observed soil properties, and further calibrating soil hydraulic conductivity. Despite these improvements, the role of the empirical soil moisture stress function in influencing the simulated water fluxes remained important: using a site-calibrated function reduced the soil water stress on plants by 36 % during drought and 23 % at other times. These changes in CABLE not only improve the seasonal cycle of evapotranspiration but also affect the latent and sensible heat fluxes during droughts and heatwaves. The range of parameterisations tested led to differences of ∼150 W m−2 in the simulated latent heat flux during a heatwave, implying a strong impact of parameterisations on the capacity for evaporative cooling and feedbacks to the boundary layer (when coupled). Overall, our results highlight the opportunity to advance the capability of land surface models to capture water cycle processes, particularly during meteorological extremes, when sufficient observations of both evapotranspiration fluxes and soil moisture profiles are available.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Clancy ◽  
William Collins ◽  
Pier Luigi Vidale ◽  
Gerd Folberth

<p>Carbon uptake by land ecosystems is a hugely important carbon sink for the Earth's climate. Plants uptake carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via pores on the surface of their leaves called stomata. However, ozone can also be taken up by plants in this way leading to damage to the plant, a decrease in its growth rate and an impact on the carbon cycle. Ozone damage to plants also modifies other processes within the ecosystem such as transpiration and respiration rates, thereby effecting the hydrological cycle and energy cycle. The Joint UK Land and Environment Simulator (JULES) land-surface model includes ozone sensitivity parameters for all its vegetation cover (plant functional types). Our recent results from JULES experiments at FLUXNET sites show that ozone reduces photosynthesis and suppresses transpiration, thereby impacting the carbon, heat and water fluxes in JULES. Furthermore, we identify differences in a quantitative impact on leaf phenology.</p>


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