Webinar for the 2024 ISMC van Genuchten Award

held by Paolo Nasta 17^th of September 2024 

“20 years in the Alento Hydrological Observatory”

The Alento Hydrological Observatory has amassed a rich dataset from diverse monitoring techniques and sampling campaigns. The goal is to gain hydrological understanding by effectively implementing this data set into hydrological models. The challenge is to describe the complex, non-linear hydrological processes modulated by scale-dependent feedback and multiscale spatio-temporal heterogeneity.

The webinar will be held 17th of September 2024 at 16:00 to 17:00 (GMT+2 or Berlin time). For access use this link.

Webinar for the 2024 ISMC Young Scientist Award held by Nasrollah Sepehrnia 20^th of September 2024 

Nasrollah will talk about “Modelling Bacterial Transport and Fate: Investigating the Impact of Soil Water Repellency Dynamics”. The webinar will be held 20th of September 2024 at 14:00 to 15:00 (GMT+2 or Berlin time). For access use this link.

Zhydro Workshop at Monte Verita, Switzerland March 2025

Missing links in drought research: linking plant physiology, soil hydrology, and climate science across scales - 2^nd to 7^th March 2025

Our workshop brings together plant physiologists, ecologists, forest scientists, climatologists, hydrologists, soil scientists, and agronomists working on drought research and creates a platform to transfer knowledge across disciplines.The Zhydro workshop will take place at Monte Verita in 2025. More information can be found here.

The Budapest Soil Health Forum will take place on December 4, 2024

The Budapest Soil Health Forum will be held in association with the high-level closing event of the Agricultural Chapter of the Hungarian EU presidency. The Forum will take place on December 4, 2024, in Budapest, Hungary.

The Forum aims to bring together leading experts, researchers, and practitioners to discuss the latest advancements and applications of artificial intelligence in enhancing soil health.

The Forum consists of four events, including two international conferences, a workshop, and a panel discussion:

1. Artificial Intelligence for Soil Health -- international conference
2. Improving Soil Health: Amendments, Monitoring and Modelling international conference
3. Soil Organic Carbon and Soil Health – workshop
4. Soil-X-Change: Soil Management Innovation – panel discussion

Join us for a day of insightful presentations, networking opportunities, and collaborative discussions to advance the field of soil health through AI solutions, monitoring, soil management, and more.To register or submit a paper, please visit our website: https://www.soilhealthforum.hu/ Registration and abstract submission deadline: September 15, 2024. The registration and participation are free of charge.  We look forward to your participation in this ground breaking event!

Webinar on Modelling of water/nutrient retention in agricultural environments

On September 3rd, from 15:00 to 17:00h CET, a webinar on Modelling of water/nutrient retention in agricultural environments as part of the EU OPTAIN project will be held. The webinar is intended for the modellers, however open to other practitioners that might be interested in the topic. Click on the link to register for the webinar if you would also like to join.

Featured Paper

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Please share your recent paper if you want to be featured in the ISMC newsletter. With your contributions, we will select one paper to be featured in every newsletter. Submission can be done here. 

Peatland-VU-NUCOM (PVN 1.0): using dynamic plant functional types to model peatland vegetation, CH4, and CO2 emissions

Despite covering only 3 % of the planet’s land surface, peatlands store 30 % of the planet’s terrestrial carbon. The net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from peatlands depend on many factors but primarily soil temperature, vegetation composition, water level and drainage, and land management. However, many peatland models rely on water levels to estimate CH4 exchange, neglecting to consider the role of CH4 transported to the atmosphere by vegetation. To assess the impact of vegetation on the GHG fluxes of peatlands, we have developed a new model, Peatland-VU-NUCOM (PVN). The PVN model is a site-specific peatland CH4 and CO2 emissions model, able to reproduce vegetation dynamics. To represent dynamic vegetation, we have introduced plant functional types and competition, adapted from the NUCOM-BOG model, into the framework of the Peatland-VU model, a peatland GHG emissions model. The new PVN model includes plant competition, CH4 diffusion, ebullition, root, shoot, litter, exudate production, belowground decomposition, and aboveground moss development under changing water levels and climatic conditions.

Here, we present the PVN model structure and explore the model's sensitivity to environmental input data and the introduction of the new vegetation competition schemes. We evaluate the model against observed chamber data collected at two peatland sites in the Netherlands to show that the model is able to reproduce realistic plant biomass fractions and daily CH4 and CO2 fluxes. We find that daily air temperature, water level, harvest frequency and height, and vegetation composition drive CH4 and CO2 emissions. We find that this process-based model is suitable to be used to simulate peatland vegetation dynamics and CH4 and CO2 emissions.

More details can be found here

Featured Soil Modeller (Xiaodong Gao)

Ecohydrology in Dryland Agroecosystems

Xiaodong Gao is a research professor at the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of the Northwest A&F University, China. He graduated from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013 and received his PhD degree in Soil Science. Thereafter, he started his research focusing on ecohydrology and sustainability of dryland ecosystems particularly in tree plantations using field observations, process-based models, machine learning and stable isotopes.

 - Please tell us briefly about yourself and your research interest.

I was first fascinated with water flow in my physics class as a middle school student. Later in my biology class, I learned the importance of water to the surviving and good health of our human beings. When I began my PhD study, I also chose to do research with respect to spatial and temporal variations of water cycling. Particularly in dryland ecosystems, water is the most important variable that influence the ecological and biological processes. Therefore, my main research interest is to understand how plants particularly trees interact with water cycling in dryland ecosystems. I have been trying to disentangle their relationship using a range of approaches including modelling and in situ measurements.

 -  How did you first become interested in soil modelling and learn about ISMC?

Before 2015, I had been using in situ observations and stable isotopic technology to study the ecohydrological process in dryland ecosystems. However, when I found that the tree’s rooting depth can be more than 20 m in the China’s Loess Plateau. I understand that observations are not enough to thoroughly figure out these complicated processes in the Critical Zone. Thereafter, I turned to process-based models such as Hydrus-1D and STEMMUS, which opens a new world for me to better understanding plant-soil moisture relations. I learned about ISMC two years ago when I go through the personal homepage of Dr. Yijian Zeng. I find that the ISMC is really helpful to advance soil modelling.

 -Can you share with us your current research focus?

Soil moisture determines the sustainability of dryland ecosystems particularly for dryland tree plantations. Understanding tree’s eco-hydrological and eco-physiological response to soil moisture is critical to predict the fate of tree plantations in dryland. Therefore, one of my current research projects is to explore plant-soil moisture relation and feedback in drylands using models of coupling water balance, plant physiology, and plant hydraulics. Another research interest is to probe how nitrate migration in dryland orchards where overfertilization exists and its response to land use change and climate change using models of coupling water balance and nitrogen balance.

- Please tell us briefly how your research could contribute to ISMC Science Panel’s activities? Or the other way around, how do you wish ISMC science panels help/support your research activities?

Currently, I am trying to couple the hydrological, ecological and physiological processes based on the STEMMUS model to predict the fate of planted trees on China’s Loess Plateau with dry and deep (30~200 m) vadose zone. To verify the coupling model, we made a lot of observations in soil moisture, transpiration and fine root distribution. I think these data can contribute to the database of ISMC.

- What resources or skills would you recommend that early career members of ISMC should acquire? And how can ISMC help and support early career members in this regard?

According to my experience, I think early career members of ISMC should have professional knowledge in fields such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, as these are fundamental to the modelling. Furthermore, they should be familiar with at least one programming language. Last but not least, they should have patience to learn from errors during modelling.

ISMC can provide online courses and learning materials, making it convenient for members to learn and improve at any time. Additionally, ISMC can offer an online platform for members to discuss challenges, share research findings, and exchange the latest technologies and ideas. This can benefit graduate students and young researchers.