TY - JOUR
T1 - Pedotransfer Functions in Earth System Science
T2 - Challenges and Perspectives
AU - Van Looy, Kris
AU - Bouma, Johan
AU - Herbst, Michael
AU - Koestel, John
AU - Minasny, Budiman
AU - Mishra, Umakant
AU - Montzka, Carsten
AU - Nemes, Attila
AU - Pachepsky, Yakov A.
AU - Padarian, José
AU - Schaap, Marcel G.
AU - Tóth, Brigitta
AU - Verhoef, Anne
AU - Vanderborght, Jan
AU - van der Ploeg, Martine J.
AU - Weihermüller, Lutz
AU - Zacharias, Steffen
AU - Zhang, Yonggen
AU - Vereecken, Harry
PY - 2017/12/29
Y1 - 2017/12/29
N2 - Soil, through its various functions, plays a vital role in the Earth's ecosystems and provides multiple ecosystem services to humanity. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are simple to complex knowledge rules that relate available soil information to soil properties and variables that are needed to parameterize soil processes. In this paper, we review the existing PTFs and document the new generation of PTFs developed in the different disciplines of Earth system science. To meet the methodological challenges for a successful application in Earth system modeling, we emphasize that PTF development has to go hand in hand with suitable extrapolation and upscaling techniques such that the PTFs correctly represent the spatial heterogeneity of soils. PTFs should encompass the variability of the estimated soil property or process, in such a way that the estimation of parameters allows for validation and can also confidently provide for extrapolation and upscaling purposes capturing the spatial variation in soils. Most actively pursued recent developments are related to parameterizations of solute transport, heat exchange, soil respiration, and organic carbon content, root density, and vegetation water uptake. Further challenges are to be addressed in parameterization of soil erosivity and land use change impacts at multiple scales. We argue that a comprehensive set of PTFs can be applied throughout a wide range of disciplines of Earth system science, with emphasis on land surface models. Novel sensing techniques provide a true breakthrough for this, yet further improvements are necessary for methods to deal with uncertainty and to validate applications at global scale.
AB - Soil, through its various functions, plays a vital role in the Earth's ecosystems and provides multiple ecosystem services to humanity. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are simple to complex knowledge rules that relate available soil information to soil properties and variables that are needed to parameterize soil processes. In this paper, we review the existing PTFs and document the new generation of PTFs developed in the different disciplines of Earth system science. To meet the methodological challenges for a successful application in Earth system modeling, we emphasize that PTF development has to go hand in hand with suitable extrapolation and upscaling techniques such that the PTFs correctly represent the spatial heterogeneity of soils. PTFs should encompass the variability of the estimated soil property or process, in such a way that the estimation of parameters allows for validation and can also confidently provide for extrapolation and upscaling purposes capturing the spatial variation in soils. Most actively pursued recent developments are related to parameterizations of solute transport, heat exchange, soil respiration, and organic carbon content, root density, and vegetation water uptake. Further challenges are to be addressed in parameterization of soil erosivity and land use change impacts at multiple scales. We argue that a comprehensive set of PTFs can be applied throughout a wide range of disciplines of Earth system science, with emphasis on land surface models. Novel sensing techniques provide a true breakthrough for this, yet further improvements are necessary for methods to deal with uncertainty and to validate applications at global scale.
KW - Biogeochemical processes
KW - Extrapolation
KW - Heat flow
KW - Hydraulic properties
KW - Land surface model
KW - Soil properties
U2 - 10.1002/2017RG000581
DO - 10.1002/2017RG000581
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85039167142
SN - 8755-1209
VL - 55
SP - 1199
EP - 1256
JO - Reviews of Geophysics
JF - Reviews of Geophysics
IS - 4
ER -