Plants as sensors: vegetation response to rainfall predicts root-zone water storage capacity in Mediterranean-type climates
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract In Mediterranean-type climates, asynchronicity between energy and water availability means that ecosystems rely heavily on the water-storing capacity of the subsurface to sustain plant water use over the summer dry season. The root-zone water storage capacity ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> [L]) defines the maximum volume of water that can be stored in plant accessible locations in the subsurface, but is poorly characterized and difficult to measure at large scales. Here, we develop an ecohydrological modeling framework to describe how <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> mediates root zone water storage ( S [L]), and thus dry season plant water use. The model reveals that where <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> is high relative to mean annual rainfall, S is not fully replenished in all years, and root-zone water storage and therefore plant water use are sensitive to annual rainfall. Conversely, where <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> is low, S is replenished in most years but can be depleted rapidly between storm events, increasing plant sensitivity to rainfall patterns at the end of the wet season. In contrast to both the high and low <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> cases, landscapes with intermediate <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> values are predicted to minimize variability in dry season evapotranspiration. These diverse plant behaviors enable a mapping between time variations in precipitation, evapotranspiration and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> , which makes it possible to estimate <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> using remotely sensed vegetation data − that is, using plants as sensors. We test the model using observations of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">x</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> in soils and weathered bedrock at two sites in the Northern California Coast Ranges. Accurate model performance at these sites, which exhibit strongly contrasting weathering profiles, demonstrates the method is robust across diverse plant communities, and modes of storage and runoff generation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.006 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".