A forest floor model for heat and moisture including a litter layer

Forest soils are often covered with a litter that influences the rate of mass and energy transfer between the soil and the air above, thereby modifying the temperature and moisture fields in the soil. The presence of a litter should therefore be accounted for in forest SVAT models, especially when l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam) 2002-01, Vol.255 (1), p.212-233
Main Authors: Ogée, J., Brunet, Y.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
coniferous forests
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
energy transfer
Environmental Sciences
equations
Euroflux
Evaporation
Exact sciences and technology
Force-restore method
forest canopy
Forest floor
Forest litter
forest soils
France
heat
Hydrology
Hydrology. Hydrogeology
Life Sciences
model validation
rain
soil air
Soil moisture
Soil temperature
space and time
temperature
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Summary:Forest soils are often covered with a litter that influences the rate of mass and energy transfer between the soil and the air above, thereby modifying the temperature and moisture fields in the soil. The presence of a litter should therefore be accounted for in forest SVAT models, especially when long-term simulations are to be performed. A heat and moisture litter model has been developed by adding two dynamical equations to a force-restore type soil model. The experimental data used for the model validation was collected in a pine forest canopy in the South-West of France, that was part of the Euroflux network. The model is tested and validated over a two-year period. It is shown to provide a fairly good simulation of soil and litter moisture, soil and litter temperature and turbulent fluxes measured above the forest floor. It is also shown that simulations without the litter layer are unable to reproduce all these variables simultaneously. We then perform a sensitivity analysis to the parameters whose values are either uncertain or likely to be variable in time and space, such as the litter thickness, the rainfall fraction intercepted by the litter or the maximum value of the surface resistance. A threshold value of the litter moisture used in the surface resistance parameterisation turns out to be the most critical parameter. Further work is needed to investigate the possible relationships between the various parameters describing the litter, but the present litter model can already be used in combination with other forest SVAT models.
ISSN:0022-1694
1879-2707
DOI:10.1016/S0022-1694(01)00515-7