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Valeria Barra, California Institute of Technology
To understand the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to constrain carbon uptake by the land surface, which is currently a big uncertainty in future climate predictions. To do this, we need to understand the terrestrial water cycle, and especially how plants use water. In climate models that simulate the entire Earth system (comprising the atmosphere, ocean, land and ice masses) plants can serve as an important link between the land and the atmosphere. Hence, plant hydraulics, which studies water transport processes through roots, trunks, stems, and leaves, becomes a key link between different modules in modern climate models. Accurately modeling this process with equations based on Darcy's Law for water flow in a porous medium helps constrain photosynthesis and evapotranspiration (also crucial for temperature extremes and precipitation predictions).In this workshop, we present a simple root-stem-leaf plant model that represents the water flow through plants, allowing water exchange between plants and soil. Our goal for the camp will be to extend the simple model provided, either by increasing the accuracy of the modeled plant response to drought or by taking into account different plant geometries. If time allows it, we will investigate different parameter choices or systemic changes to address several open questions: Up to what height can plants grow with this model? How does the hydraulic conductivity affect the decay of plants?
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