Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Using an Isotope Enabled Mass Balance to Evaluate Existing Land Surface Models

Journal Article · · Water Resources Research
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2024wr037530· OSTI ID:2480373
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [1]
  1. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  2. Univ. of Auckland (New Zealand)
  3. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
  4. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Land surface models (LSMs) play a crucial role in elucidating water and carbon cycles by simulating processes such as plant transpiration and evaporation from bare soil, yet calibration often relies on comparing LSM outputs of landscape total evapotranspiration (ET) and discharge with measured bulk fluxes. Discrepancies in partitioning into component fluxes predicted by various LSMs have been noted, prompting the need for improved evaluation methods. Stable water isotopes serve as effective tracers of component hydrologic fluxes, but data and model integration challenges have hindered their widespread application. Leveraging National Ecological Observation Network measurements of water isotope ratios at 16 US sites over 3 years combined with LSM-modeled fluxes, we employed an isotope-enabled mass balance framework to simulate ET isotope values (δET) within three operational LSMs (Mosaic, Noah, and VIC) to evaluate their partitioning. Models simulating δET values consistent with observations were deemed more reflective of water cycling in these ecosystems. Mosaic exhibited the best overall performance (Kling-Gupta Efficiency of 0.28). For both Mosaic and Noah there were robust correlations between bare soil evaporation fraction and error (negative) as well as transpiration fraction and error (positive). We found the point at which errors are smallest (x-intercept of the multi-site regression) is at a higher transpiration fraction than is currently specified in the models. Which means that transpiration fraction is underestimated on average. Stable isotope tracers offer an additional tool for model evaluation and identifying areas for improvement, potentially enhancing LSM simulations and our understanding of land-surface hydrologic processes.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth & Environmental Systems Science (EESS); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USGS; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; G24AP00033-00; 1802885; 1802880; 2309269; Early Career Award
OSTI ID:
2480373
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2480374; OSTI ID: 2480454
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-24-22390
Journal Information:
Water Resources Research, Vol. 60, Issue 12; ISSN 0043-1397
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (51)

SPEEDY-IER: A fast atmospheric GCM with water isotope physics journal January 2015
Implementation of Noah land surface model advances in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction operational mesoscale Eta model journal November 2003
On constraining the predictions of a distributed model: The incorporation of fuzzy estimates of saturated areas into the calibration process journal April 1998
A simple hydrologically based model of land surface water and energy fluxes for general circulation models journal January 1994
On characterizing the temporal dominance patterns of model parameters and processes journal February 2016
An approach for global sensitivity analysis of a complex environmental model to spatial inputs and parameters: A case study of an agro-hydrological model journal September 2013
Isotope effects in the evaporation of water: a status report of the Craig–Gordon model journal March 2008
Stable water isotope and surface heat flux simulation using ISOLSM: Evaluation against in-situ measurements journal April 2015
Quantitative Separation of Precipitation and Permafrost Waters Used for Evapotranspiration in a Boreal Forest: A Numerical Study Using Tracer Model journal December 2021
NLDAS Noah Land Surface Model L4 Hourly 0.125 x 0.125 degree, Version 002 dataset January 2012
Partitioning and controlling factors of evapotranspiration: 1. Hydrological modeling constrained with isotope-based water balance decoupling journal April 2024
Modeling the land surface boundary in climate models as a composite of independent vegetation stands journal January 1992
On the enrichment of H2 18O in the leaves of transpiring plants journal March 1974
Combined approach of isotope mass balance and hydrological water balance methods to constrain the sources of lake water as exemplified on the small dimictic lake Silbersee, northern Germany journal July 2016
Spatial analysis of the intra-annual variation of precipitation isotope ratios and its climatological corollaries: PRECIPITATION ISOTOPIC SEASONALITY journal March 2008
Evapotranspiration partitioning in semiarid shrubland ecosystems: a two-site evaluation of soil moisture control on transpiration journal August 2010
SiSPAT-Isotope, a coupled heat, water and stable isotope (HDO and H218O) transport model for bare soil. Part II. Evaluation and sensitivity tests using two laboratory data sets journal July 2005
Characterization of watershed model behavior across a hydroclimatic gradient: WATERSHED MODEL BEHAVIOR journal January 2008
Calibration Strategies for Detecting Macroscale Patterns in NEON Atmospheric Carbon Isotope Observations journal March 2021
Similarity Assessment of Land Surface Model Outputs in the North American Land Data Assimilation System: NLDAS SIMILARITY ASSESSMENT journal November 2017
Evaluation of NLDAS-2 evapotranspiration against tower flux site observations: EVALUATION OF NLDAS-2 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION journal August 2014
Multiobjective sensitivity analysis to understand the information content in streamflow observations for distributed watershed modeling: MULTIOBJECTIVE SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS journal February 2009
Stable isotopes in precipitation journal January 1964
NLDAS Primary Forcing Data L4 Hourly 0.125 x 0.125 degree, Version 002 dataset January 2009
Continental-scale water and energy flux analysis and validation for the North American Land Data Assimilation System project phase 2 (NLDAS-2): 1. Intercomparison and application of model products: WATER AND ENERGY FLUX ANALYSIS journal February 2012
Evaluation of modeled land‐atmosphere exchanges with a comprehensive water isotope fractionation scheme in version 4 of the C ommunity L and M odel journal April 2017
Towards hydrological model calibration and validation: simulation of stable water isotopes using the isoWATFLOOD model journal February 2013
Relationship between isotope ratios in precipitation and stream water across watersheds of the National Ecological Observation Network journal October 2023
A New Post‐Hoc Method to Reduce the Energy Imbalance in Eddy Covariance Measurements journal January 2024
Water isotopes in the GISS ModelE land surface scheme journal May 2006
The Isotopic Fractionation of Water by Physiological Processes journal February 1934
Uncertainty assessment of hydrologic model states and parameters: Sequential data assimilation using the particle filter: UNCERTAINTY ASSESSMENT OF HYDROLOGIC MODEL journal May 2005
Modeling of land surface evaporation by four schemes and comparison with FIFE observations journal March 1996
An Isotopic Study (2H and 18O) of Water Movements in Clayey Soils Under a Semiarid Climate journal April 1996
Sobol′’s sensitivity analysis for a distributed hydrological model of Yichun River Basin, China journal February 2013
Calculating isotopic fractionation from atmospheric measurements at various scales journal January 2003
NLDAS Mosaic Land Surface Model L4 Hourly 0.125 x 0.125 degree, Version 002 dataset January 2009
Identifiability analysis: towards constrained equifinality and reduced uncertainty in a conceptual model journal August 2014
Iso-MATSIRO, a land surface model that incorporates stable water isotopes journal May 2006
The Interpretation of the Variations in Leaf Water Potential and Stomatal Conductance Found in Canopies in the Field journal February 1976
On the sensitivity of Craig and Gordon Model for the estimation of the isotopic composition of lake evaporates journal May 1999
Stable isotope fractionation due to evaporation and isotopic exchange of falling waterdrops: Applications to atmospheric processes and evaporation of lakes journal March 1975
Combined analysis of time-varying sensitivity and identifiability indices to diagnose the response of a complex environmental model journal February 2017
Understanding predictive uncertainty in hydrologic modeling: The challenge of identifying input and structural errors: IDENTIFIABILITY OF INPUT AND STRUCTURAL ERRORS journal May 2010
The isotopic composition of evaporating waters – review of the historical evolution leading up to the Craig–Gordon model journal March 2008
Stable isotope mass balance of lakes: a contemporary perspective journal January 2016
Direct quantification of leaf transpiration isotopic composition journal March 2012
“Amount effect” of water isotopes and quantitative analysis of post-condensation processes journal January 2007
Comparison of isotopic mass balance and instrumental techniques as estimates of basin hydrology in seven connected lakes over 12 years journal January 2020
NLDAS VIC Land Surface Model L4 Hourly 0.125 x 0.125 degree, Version 002 dataset January 2014
Transpiration efficiency: new insights into an old story journal March 2014

Similar Records

Assessment of simulated water balance from Noah, Noah-MP, CLM, and VIC over CONUS using the NLDAS test bed
Journal Article · Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Geophysical Research. D. (Atmospheres), 119(24):13,751–13,770 · OSTI ID:1188912
+4 more

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
stable isotopes
evapotranspiration
land surface models
NEON
hydrological cycle
fluxes
evapotranspiration partitioning
Earth Sciences