Thu Aug 14, F. Flechtner
• Sorted by Date • Sorted by Last Name of First Author •
Zhao, Meng, McCormick, Erica L., A, Geruo, Konings, Alexandra G., and Li, Bailing, 2025. Substantial Root-Zone Water Storage Capacity Observed By Grace And Grace/Fo. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 29:2293–2307, doi:10.5194/hess-29-2293-2025.
• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System • by the DOI System •
@ARTICLE{2025HESS...29.2293Z,
author = {{Zhao}, Meng and {McCormick}, Erica L. and {A}, Geruo and {Konings}, Alexandra G. and {Li}, Bailing},
title = "{Substantial Root-Zone Water Storage Capacity Observed By Grace And Grace/Fo}",
journal = {Hydrology and Earth System Sciences},
year = 2025,
month = may,
volume = {29},
pages = {2293-2307},
abstract = "{Root-zone water storage capacity (Sr) {\textendash} the maximum water
volume available for vegetation uptake {\textendash} bolsters
ecosystem resilience to droughts and heatwaves, influences
land{\textendash}atmosphere exchange, and controls runoff and
groundwater recharge. In land models, Sr serves as a critical
parameter to simulate water availability for vegetation and its
impact on processes like transpiration and soil moisture
dynamics. However, Sr is difficult to measure, especially at
large spatial scales, hindering an accurate understanding of
many biophysical processes, such as photosynthesis,
evapotranspiration, tree mortality, and wildfire risk. Here, we
present a global estimate of Sr using measurements of total
water storage (TWS) anomalies from the Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On satellite
missions. We find that the median Sr value for global vegetated
regions is at least 220{\ensuremath{\pm}}40 mm, which is over 50
\% larger than the latest estimate derived from tracking storage
change via water fluxes and 380 \% larger than that calculated
using a typical soil and rooting-depth parameterization. These
findings reveal that plant-available water stores exceed the
storage capacity of 2 m deep soil in nearly half of Earth's
vegetated surface, representing a notably larger extent than
previous estimates. Applying our Sr estimates in a global
hydrological model improves evapotranspiration simulations
compared to other Sr estimates across much of the globe,
particularly during droughts, highlighting the robustness of our
approach. Our study highlights the importance of continued
refinement and validation of Sr estimates and provides a new
observational approach for further exploring the impacts of Sr
on water resource management and ecosystem sustainability.}",
doi = {10.5194/hess-29-2293-2025},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025HESS...29.2293Z},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
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