Impact of Root An Soil Hydraulic Properties On Water Flow Variability at the Plant Scale.

Soil water variability at the field scale is of importance to manage irrigation or predict solute fate. In this study, we analyzed the impact of the plant water uptake on the soil water distribution. We particularly investigated the effect of root architecture and root and soil hydraulic properties on the soil water depletion patterns. We used R-SWMS to predict the evolution of water and uptake distributions. This model estimates the 3-D water flux distribution between soil and root xylem systems based on the water potential gradients and the hydraulic properties of both systems. We compared two contrasted root architectures and by varying the root and soil hydraulic properties, we could characterize distinct types of uptake strategies. Each of them generated contrasted spatiotemporal distributions of the soil water content, which would therefore affect differently solute fate.