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Journal Article

Root zone in the Earth system

Authors

Gao,  Hongkai
External Organizations;

Hrachowitz,  Markus
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/lan.wangerlandsson

Wang-Erlandsson,  Lan
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Fenicia,  Fabrizio
External Organizations;

Xi,  Qiaojuan
External Organizations;

Xia,  Jianyang
External Organizations;

Shao,  Wei
External Organizations;

Sun,  Ge
External Organizations;

Savenije,  Hubert H. G.
External Organizations;

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31575oa.pdf
(Publisher version), 6MB

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Citation

Gao, H., Hrachowitz, M., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Fenicia, F., Xi, Q., Xia, J., Shao, W., Sun, G., Savenije, H. H. G. (2024): Root zone in the Earth system. - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28, 19, 4477-4499.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4477-2024


Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_31575
Abstract
The root zone is a vital part of the Earth system and a key element in hydrology, ecology, agronomy, and land surface processes. However, its definition varies across disciplines, creating barriers to interdisciplinary understanding. Moreover, characterizing the root zone is challenging due to a lack of consensus on definitions, estimation methods, and their merits and limitations. This opinion paper provides a holistic definition of the root zone from a hydrology perspective, including its moisture storage, deficit, and storage capacity. We demonstrate that the root zone plays a critical role in the biosphere, pedosphere, rhizosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere of the Earth system. We underscore the limitations of the traditional reductionist approach in modelling this complex and dynamic zone and advocate for a shift towards a holistic, ecosystem-centred approach. We argue that a holistic approach offers a more systematic, simple, dynamic, scalable, and observable way to describe and predict the role of the root zone in Earth system science.