Research Project CX5

Evaporation from bare soil is an important component of the terrestrial water cycle and especially in dry regions has a high impact on agriculture and food security. In these (semi-)arid regions additionally soil salinization often poses a problem for agriculture and the environment. The aim of this project is to further analyse the key processes and important parameters that influence evaporation and salt precipitation in soils with the help of a numerical analysis in a coupled soil-atmosphere model. 

The first step is to further analyse evaporation with the help of stable water isotopologues. Stable water isotopologues are used as tracers and can help to track water movement and evaporation in soil. So far models for isotopologue transport rely on parameterisations and key processes like kinetic fractionation are not captured very well. The goal of this project is to include processes directly and not rely on parameterisations.

The second step is then to further analyse salt precipitation in soil with a focus on non-flat soil surfaces. As soil surface especially in the context of agriculture is seldom completely flat, it is important to include a non-flat topology into the analysis. This will have a high impact on the flow behaviour in the free-flow and with that also influence processes in the soil, especially evaporation and coupled to that salt precipitation. 

This project therefore has a direct connection to the vision topic on salt precipitation and is associated to project areas A and C.