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An analytical model to relate the vertical root distribution to climate and soil properties
Author(s) -
Laio Francesco,
D'Odorico Paolo,
Ridolfi Luca
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl027331
Subject(s) - environmental science , precipitation , soil water , soil science , distribution (mathematics) , atmospheric sciences , ecosystem , root (linguistics) , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , meteorology , ecology , mathematics , geotechnical engineering , physics , biology , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy
We propose an analytical model to relate the vertical distribution of plant roots in water controlled ecosystems to the local climatic and pedologic conditions. We find that the shape of the root profile is determined by the distribution of the incoming rainfall pulses, and that the rooting systems are deeper where the soils are coarse‐textured and the evaporative demand slightly exceeds precipitation.