Core Ideas: A community effort is needed to move soil modeling forward. Establishing an international soil modeling consortium is key in this respect. There is a need to better integrate existing knowledge in soil models. Integration of data and models is a key challenge in soil modeling. The remarkable complexity of soil and its importance to a wide range of ecosystem services presents major challenges to the modeling of soil processes. Although major progress in soil models has occurred in the last decades, models of soil processes remain disjointed between disciplines or ecosystem services, with considerable uncertainty remaining in the quality of predictions and several challenges that remain yet to be addressed. First, there is a need to improve exchange of knowledge and experience among the different disciplines in soil science and to reach out to other Earth science communities. Second, the community needs to develop a new generation of soil models based on a systemic approach comprising relevant physical, chemical, and biological processes to address critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of soil processes and their interactions. Overcoming these challenges will facilitate exchanges between soil modeling and climate, plant, and social science modeling communities. It will allow us to contribute to preserve and improve our assessment of ecosystem services and advance our understanding of climate‐change feedback mechanisms, among others, thereby facilitating and strengthening communication among scientific disciplines and society. We review the role of modeling soil processes in quantifying key soil processes that shape ecosystem services, with a focus on provisioning and regulating services. We then identify key challenges in modeling soil processes, including the systematic incorporation of heterogeneity and uncertainty, the integration of data and models, and strategies for effective integration of knowledge on physical, chemical, and biological soil processes. We discuss how the soil modeling community could best interface with modern modeling activities in other disciplines, such as climate, ecology, and plant research, and how to weave novel observation and measurement techniques into soil models. We propose the establishment of an international soil modeling consortium to coherently advance soil modeling activities and foster communication with other Earth science disciplines. Such a consortium should promote soil modeling platforms and data repository for model development, calibration and intercomparison essential for addressing contemporary challenges.

Plant root water uptake (RWU) has been documented for the past five decades from water stable isotopic analysis. By comparing the (hydrogen or oxygen) stable isotopic compositions of plant xylem water to those of potential contributive water sources (e.g., water from different soil layers, groundwater, water from recent precipitation or from a nearby stream), studies were able to determine the relative contributions of these water sources to RWU. In this paper, the different methods used for locating/quantifying relative contributions of water sources to RWU (i.e., graphical inference, statistical (e.g., Bayesian) multi-source linear mixing models) are reviewed with emphasis on their respective advantages and drawbacks. The graphical and statistical methods are tested against a physically based analytical RWU model during a series of virtual experiments differing in the depth of the groundwater table, the soil surface water status, and the plant transpiration rate value. The benchmarking of these methods illustrates the limitations of the graphical and statistical methods while it underlines the performance of one Bayesian mixing model. The simplest two-end-member mixing model is also successfully tested when all possible sources in the soil can be identified to define the two end-members and compute their isotopic compositions. Finally, the authors call for a development of approaches coupling physically based RWU models with controlled condition experimental setups.

[1] In soils, the isotopic composition of water (δ²H and δ¹⁸O) provides qualitative (e.g., location of the evaporation front) and quantitative (e.g., evaporation flux and root water uptake depths) information. However, the main disadvantage of the isotope methodology is that contrary to other soil state variables that can be monitored over long time periods, δ²H and δ¹⁸O are typically analyzed following destructive sampling. Here we present a nondestructive method for monitoring soil liquid water δ²H and δ¹⁸O over a wide range of water availability conditions and temperatures by sampling water vapor equilibrated with soil water using gas-permeable polypropylene tubing and a cavity ring-down laser absorption spectrometer. By analyzing water vapor δ²H and δ¹⁸O sampled with the tubing from a fine sand for temperatures ranging between 8°C and 24°C, we demonstrate that our new method is capable of monitoring δ²H and δ¹⁸O in soils online with high precision and after calibration, also with high accuracy. Our sampling protocol enabled detecting changes of δ²H and δ¹⁸O following nonfractionating addition and removal of liquid water and water vapor of different isotopic compositions. Finally, the time needed for the tubing to monitor these changes is compatible with the observed variations of δ²H and δ¹⁸O in soils under natural conditions.

The stable isotope compositions of soil water (δ²H and δ¹⁸O) carry important information about the prevailing soil hydrological conditions and for constraining ecosystem water budgets. However, they are highly dynamic, especially during and after precipitation events. In this study, we present an application of a method based on gas-permeable tubing and isotope-specific infrared laser absorption spectroscopy for in situ determination of soil water δ²H and δ¹⁸O. We conducted a laboratory experiment where a sand column was initially saturated, exposed to evaporation for a period of 290 days, and finally rewatered. Soil water vapor δ²H and δ¹⁸O were measured daily at each of eight available depths. Soil liquid water δ²H and δ¹⁸O were inferred from those of the vapor considering thermodynamic equilibrium between liquid and vapor phases in the soil. The experimental setup allowed for following the evolution of soil water δ²H and δ¹⁸O profiles with a daily temporal resolution. As the soil dried, we could also show for the first time the increasing influence of the isotopically depleted ambient water vapor on the isotopically enriched liquid water close to the soil surface (i.e., atmospheric invasion). Rewatering at the end of the experiment led to instantaneous resetting of the stable isotope profiles, which could be closely followed with the new method. From simple soil δ²H and δ¹⁸O gradients calculations, we showed that the gathered data allowed one to determinate the depth of the evaporation front (EF) and how it receded into the soil over time. It was inferred that after 290 days under the prevailing experimental conditions, the EF had moved down to an approximate depth of −0.06 m. Finally, data were used to calculate the slopes of the evaporation lines and test the formulation for kinetic isotope effects. A very good agreement was found between measured and simulated values (Nash and Sutcliffe efficiency, NSE = 0.92) during the first half of the experiment, i.e., until the EF reached a depth of −0.04 m. From this point, calculated kinetic effects associated with the transport of isotopologues in the soil surface air layer above the EF provided slopes lower than observed. Finally, values of kinetic isotope effects that provided the best model-to-data fit (NSE > 0.9) were obtained from inverse modeling, highlighting uncertainties associated with the determinations of isotope kinetic fractionation and soil relative humidity at the EF.

The analysis of the stable isotopic composition of hydrogen and oxygen in water samples from soils and plants can help to identify sources of vegetation water uptake. This approach requires that the heterogeneous nature of plant and soil matrices is carefully accounted for during experimental design, sample collection, water extraction and analyses. The comparability and shortcomings of the different methods for extracting water and analyzing isotopic composition have been discussed in specialized literature. Yet, despite insightful comparisons of extraction methods and benchmarking methodologies of laboratories worldwide, the community still lacks a roadmap to guide sample collection, extraction, and isotopic analyses, and many practical issues for potential users remain unresolved: for example, which (soil or plant) water pool(s) does the extracted water represent? These constitute a hurdle for the implementation of the approach by newcomers. Here, we summarize discussions led in the framework of the COST Action WATSON (“WATer isotopeS in the critical zONe: from groundwater recharge to plant transpiration”—CA19120). We provide guidelines for (1) sampling soil and plant material for isotopic analysis, (2) methods for laboratory or in situ water extraction, and (3) measurements of isotopic composition. We highlight the importance of considering the process chain as a whole, from experimental design to isotopic analysis to minimize biased estimates of the relative contribution of different water sources to plant water uptake. We conclude by acknowledging some of the limitations of this methodology and advice on the collection of key environmental parameters prior to sample collection for isotopic analyses.This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change Science of Water > Water Extremes

Disentangling ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) into evaporation (E) and transpiration (T) is of high relevance for a wide range of applications, from land surface modelling to policymaking. Identifying and analysing the determinants of the ratio of T to ET ($T/ET$ ) for various land covers and uses, especially in view of climate change with an increased frequency of extreme events (e.g. heatwaves and floods), is prerequisite for forecasting the hydroclimate of the future and tackling present issues, such as agricultural and irrigation practices. One partitioning method consists of determining the water stable isotopic compositions of ET, E, and T (δ_ET, δ_E, and δ_E, respectively) from the water retrieved from the atmosphere, the soil, and the plant vascular tissues. The present work emphasizes the challenges this particular method faces (e.g. the spatial and temporal representativeness of the $T/ET$ estimates, the limitations of the models used, and the sensitivities to their driving parameters) and the progress that needs to be made in light of the recent methodological developments. As our review is intended for a broader audience beyond the isotopic ecohydrological and micrometeorological communities, it also attempts to provide a thorough review of the ensemble of techniques used for determining δ_ET, δ_E, and δ_E and solving the partitioning equation for $T/ET$ . From the current state of research, we conclude that the most promising way forward to ET partitioning and capturing the subdaily dynamics of $T/ET$ is by making use of non-destructive online monitoring techniques of the stable isotopic composition of soil and xylem water. Effort should continue towards the application of the eddy covariance technique for high-frequency determination of δ_ET at the field scale as well as the concomitant determination of δ_ET, δ_E, and δ_E at high vertical resolution with field-deployable lift systems.