Modelling root water uptake in hydrological and climate models

Authors: Feddes, RA, H. Hoff, M. Bruen, T. Dawson, P. de Rosnay, P. Dirmeyer, R.B. Jackson, P. Kabat, A. Kleidon, A. Lilly, and A.J. Pitman

From 30 September to 2 October 1999 a workshop was held in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, with the central objective to develop a research strategy for the next 3-5 years, aiming at a systematic description of root functioning, rooting depth, and root distribution for modelling root water uptake from local, regional to global scales. The goal was to link more closely the weather prediction and climate and hydrological models with ecological and plant physiological information in order to improve the understanding of the impact that root functioning has on the hydrological cycle at various scales. The major outcome of the workshop was a number of recommendations, detailed at the end of this paper, on root water uptake parametrization and modelling and on collection of root and soil hydraulic data.
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