While it is well known that soil moisture directly affects microbial activity and soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, it is unclear if the presence of plants alters these effects through rhizosphere processes. We studied soil moisture effects on SOM decomposition with and without sunflower and soybean. Plants were grown in two different soil types with soil moisture contents of 45% and 85%...

The long-term goal of this project is to improve the high-resolution model forecasts by developing a real-time globally re-locatable capability to initialize/assimilate the Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) land-surface model soil parameters. The partition of the model surface sensible and latent heat fluxes in the land-surface parameterization is sensitive to the in...

Using a fully coupled climate–terrestrial ecosystem model, we demonstrate explicitly that an initial perturbation on vegetation induces not only a direct positive vegetation feedback, but also a significant indirect vegetation–soil moisture feedback. The indirect feedback is generated through either fractional cover change or soil moisture depletion. Both indirect feedback mechanisms are trigge...

This study investigates the impact of abnormally moist soil conditions across the southern Great Plains upon the overland reintensification of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Erin (2007). This is tested by analyzing the contributions of three soil moisture–related signals—a seasonal signal, an along-track rainfall signal, and an early postlandfall rainfall signal—to the intensity of the vortex....

Understanding variability patterns in soil moisture is critical for determining an optimal sampling scheme both in space and in time, as well as for determining optimal management zones for agricultural applications that involve moisture status. In this study, distributed near-surface gravimetric soil moisture samples were collected across a 3.3 ha field in central Illinois for ten dates in the...

Knowledge of temporal and spatial variation in root zone soil moisture content across Australia is vital for a wide range of environmental and socio-economic activities. However, such information is not currently available, due to an inability to monitor with ground-based point measurement techniques at an appropriate spatial resolution, and the uncertainty associated with land surface model pr...

Soil moisture plays a key role in vegetation restoration and ecosystem stability in arid and semiarid regions. The response of soil moisture to rainfall pulses is an important hydrological process, which is strongly influenced by land use during the implementation of vegetation restoration. In this study, vertical soil moisture variations of woodland (Pinus tabulaeformis), native grassland (Sti...

Soil moisture predictability and the associated predictability of continental climate are explored as an initialvalue problem, using a coupled land–atmosphere model with prescribed ocean surface temperatures. Ensemble simulations are designed to assess the extent to which initial soil moisture fields explain variance of future predictands (soil moisture, near-surface air temperature, and precip...