Linking soil structure, SHPs, and soc dynamics to study the impact of climate change and land management

This resource includes the Python scripts of the modeling framework, simulation result CSV files, and the figures for the manuscript entitled 'Linking Soil Structure, Hydraulic Properties, and Organic Carbon Dynamics: A Holistic Framework to Study the Impact of Climate Change and Land Management.' results_simulations_constant_porosity.csv file contains the simulation results of the modeling framework at constant porosity. results_simulations_dynamic_porosity.csv file contains the simulation results of the modeling framework at dynamic porosity. model_constant_phi is the python script with the description of the modeling framework at a constant porosity that needs to be imported and run along with the simulation constant porosity Jupyter notebook to obtain the simulation results at constant porosity. model_dynamic_phi is the python script describing the modeling framework at a dynamic porosity that needs to be imported and run along with the simulation dynamic porosity notebook to obtain the simulation results at dynamic porosity.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 Jupyter notebooks have the codes for those plots in the manuscript.

To find the updated version of the codes, visit the GitHub link: https://github.com/Achla-Jha/Soil-Structure.git.

The abstract of the manuscript:

Climate change and unsustainable land management practices have resulted in extensive soil degradation, including alteration of soil structure (i.e., aggregate and pore size distributions), loss of soil organic carbon, and reduction of water and nutrient holding capacities. Although soil structure, hydrologic processes, and biogeochemical fluxes are tightly linked, their interaction is often unaccounted for in current ecohydrological, hydrological and terrestrial biosphere models. For more holistic predictions of soil hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, models need to incorporate soil structure and macroporosity dynamics, whether in a natural or agricultural ecosystem. Here, we present a theoretical framework that couples soil hydrologic processes and soil microbial activity to soil organic carbon dynamics through the dynamics of soil structure. In particular, we link the Millennial model for soil carbon dynamics, which explicitly models the formation and breakdown of soil aggregates, to a recent parameterization of the soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity curves and to soil carbon substrate and O$_2$ diffusivities to soil microsites based on soil macroporosity. To illustrate the significance of incorporating the dynamics of soil structure, we apply the framework to a case study in which soil and vegetation recover over time from agricultural practices. The new framework enables more holistic predictions of the effects of climate change and land management practices on coupled soil hydrological and biogeochemical cycles.