Non-uniqueness of evapotranspiration due to spatial heterogeneity of plant species Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Spatially averaged soil moisture dynamics are studied under seasonally fixed conditions. We consider rainfall as a marked Poisson process, uniformly covering a spatial domain consisting of multiple plant types. Each plant type is considered to have different characteristics in terms of evapotranspiration functions, root-zone depth and rainfall interception. Equations for the evolution of joint probability density functions for individual soil moistures associated with different plant types are developed, and the non-uniqueness of the spatially averaged evapotranspiration function as a function of the average soil moisture is demonstrated and quantified in an example.

published proceedings

  • Proceedings of the Royal Society A

author list (cited authors)

  • Nordbotten, J. M., Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., & Celia, M. A.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Nordbotten, Jan Martin||Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio||Celia, Michael A

publication date

  • August 2006