Simulating Stony Soil Impact on Evapotranspiration.

Few studies of evapotranspiration are made in natural vegetation ecosystems as compared to agricultural settings. Forest soils in many locations are dominated by high stone content, affecting the hydraulic soil properties. Variable soil hydraulic properties greatly complicate the understanding and simulation of water and energy fluxes within the land surface and the atmosphere. In this study the Hydrus-1D numerical model was employed to simulate evapotranspiration (ET) from stony soil. Two different scenarios for stony soils were simulated assuming highly porous- (porosity = 35%) and negligibly porous- ( porosity = 3%) stones in the soil. Simulated ET was overestimated compared to eddy covariance measurements when neglecting stone content, while accounting for stones substantially reduced simulated cumulative ET due to the reduced bulk soil water retention.