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Investigating Soil–Root Interactions with the Numerical Model R-SWMS

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Plant Systems Biology

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2395))

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Abstract

In this chapter, we present the Root and Soil Water Movement and Solute transport model R-SWMS, which can be used to simulate flow and transport in the soil–plant system. The equations describing water flow in soil–root systems are presented and numerical solutions are provided. An application of R-SWMS is then briefly discussed, in which we combine in vivo and in silico experiments in order to decrypt water flow in the soil–root domain. More precisely, light transmission imaging experiments were conducted to generate data that can serve as input for the R-SWMS model. These data include the root system architecture, the soil hydraulic properties and the environmental conditions (initial soil water content and boundary conditions, BC). Root hydraulic properties were not acquired experimentally, but set to theoretical values found in the literature. In order to validate the results obtained by the model, the simulated and experimental water content distributions were compared. The model was then used to estimate variables that were not experimentally accessible, such as the actual root water uptake distribution and xylem water potential.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth and Life Institute/Environmental Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain, Belgium

    Félicien Meunier, Valentin Couvreur, Xavier Draye, Guillaume Lobet, Nathalie Schroeder, Axelle Koch & Mathieu Javaux

  2. Agrosphere (IBG-3), Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

    Guillaume Lobet, Katrin Huber, Helena Jorda, Magdalena Landl, Andrea Schnepf, Jan Vanderborght, Harry Vereecken & Mathieu Javaux

  3. Department of Hydromechanics and Modelling of Hydrosystems, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Nathalie Schroeder

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  1. Félicien Meunier
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  2. Valentin Couvreur
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  3. Xavier Draye
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  4. Guillaume Lobet
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  5. Katrin Huber
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  6. Nathalie Schroeder
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  7. Helena Jorda
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  8. Axelle Koch
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  9. Magdalena Landl
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  10. Andrea Schnepf
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  11. Jan Vanderborght
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  12. Harry Vereecken
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  13. Mathieu Javaux
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Correspondence to Mathieu Javaux .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. DIADE, Univ Montpellier, IRD,, CIRAD, Montpellier, France

    Mikaël Lucas

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Meunier, F. et al. (2022). Investigating Soil–Root Interactions with the Numerical Model R-SWMS. In: Lucas, M. (eds) Plant Systems Biology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2395. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1816-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1816-5_13

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1814-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1816-5

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