Including tree water storage dynamics in modeling of stomatal conductance

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Water stored in trees has an important role in regulating how much water the trees lose through their leaves, a process called transpiration. As plants transpire, water is lost from branches and stems more quickly than it can be replenished by water uptake from the soil by the roots. In order to prevent excessive drying, plants respond to this "hydraulic stress" by reducing transpiration rates. However, current land-surface models do not represent these hydraulic processes and the level of water storage within trees, but predict the transpiration rates based directly on soil moisture. This can produce typical daily patterns of error in simulations of transpiration. This research proposes a model to represent these missing within-tree water dynamics. The FETCH2 model resolves water flow through the tree stem to simulate realistically reductions in transpiration due to hydraulic stresses. Data from a large scale ecological disturbance experiment will be used to validate this approach. FETCH2 will be developed so that it can be coupled with other ecosystem and land-surface models. We will test the effectivity of FETCH2 by comparing the results of several ecosystem models with and without FETCH2 simulations with observations of tree water status and transpiration made in the disturbance experiment site and in a nearby undisturbed control site. The research team has partnered with the Ohio Water Resources Center (OWRC) to develop a hands-on activity package to illustrate porous-media flow based on the curricular activities template drafted by Project 'WET' (Water Education for Teachers), which will use games and experiments to illustrate the scientific principles at the primary school level. Above-ground water storage in trees plays a key role in regulating transpiration in forest canopies. Plants transpire water from the stem storage. As transpiration rates are higher than the maximal recharge rate from the soil through the roots, stem, and branches, the above-ground storage becomes depleted and stomata close to restrict transpiration in response to the negative xylem water potential. These hydraulic limitations control transpiration in forest ecosystems under both wet and dry conditions. Current land-surface models do not represent the above-ground storage in trees. These models impose water resource limitations on transpiration by directly linking stomatal conductance to soil moisture. As the intra-daily dynamics of soil moisture are very different than the dynamics of water storage in the tree xylem, the current approach leads to deviations from the observed dynamics of transpiration. As a result, land surface models produce characteristic intra-daily patterns of errors in simulations of latent heat flux. This research will develop a framework to resolve such tree hydrodynamics that could be incorporated into hydrologic, land surface, and Earth System Models to replace the current empirical link between stomatal conductance and soil moisture. The FETCH2 model resolves the water flow and water potential in the tree stem and realistically links stomatal conductance to the water potential in the xylem, while water availability in the soil provides a bottom boundary condition for the hydrodynamic system. Data from a large scale ecological disturbance experiment at a forest in Michigan will be used to validate this approach. FETCH2 simulations will be compared to observations of sap flux and stem water storage in the forest plots and to land-surface model simulation results without the hydrodynamic module. Improvements to the simulation of stomatal conductance and transpiration in atmospheric, hydrologic, and Earth system models will propagate to connected variables such as soil moisture, the surface energy budget, and gross primary productivity. By incorporating the effects of forest canopy structure, tree water storage, and hydraulic strategy on stomatal conductance, this study may impact many types and classes of climate, hydrologic, and meteorological models.