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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #330437
Research Project: Design and Implementation of Monitoring and Modeling Methods to Evaluate Microbial Quality of Surface Water Sources Used for Irrigation

Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory

Title: On the role of patterns in understanding the functioning of soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems

Author
item VREEECKEN, HARRY - JULICH RESEARCH CENTER
item Pachepsky, Yakov
item SIMMER, CLEMENSI - UNIVERSITY OF BONN
item RIHANI, JIRAN - UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE
item KUNOTH, ANGELA - UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE
item KORRES, WOLFGANG - UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE
item GRAPH, ALEXANDER - JULICH RESEARCH CENTER
item HENDRICKS FRANNSEN, HARRIE-YAN - JULICH RESEARCH CENTER
item THIELE-EICHE, INSA - JULICH RESEARCH CENTER
item SHAO, YAOPING - JULICH RESEARCH CENTER

Submitted to: Journal of Hydrology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/25/2016
Publication Date: 9/6/2016
Citation: Vreeecken, H., Pachepsky, Y.A., Simmer, C., Rihani, J., Kunoth, A., Korres, W., Graph, A., Hendricks Frannsen, H., Thiele-Eiche, I., Shao, Y. 2016. On the role of patterns in understanding the functioning of soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems. Journal of Hydrology. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.08.053.

Interpretive Summary: Some phenomena or properties in soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems tend to be repetitive in space, in time, or in both space and time, and are observed at different scales. Regularly appearing features are often termed patterns. When detected, patterns can be used for diagnostics, monitoring predictions, and management. The concept of pattern becomes especially useful as we enter the ‘big data’ era. This paper is the first review that summarizes the concepts, methods, applications, and prospects related to the notion of patterns. We found that detection of patterns based on data-driven methods can substantially improve the understanding and predictability of soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems. The work will be useful for the wide group of researchers and other professionals working with soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems in agriculture, forestry, meteorology, ecology, and related fields.

Technical Abstract: In this paper, we review the role of patterns to improve our understanding of water, mass and energy exchange processes in soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems. We explore the main mechanisms that lead to the formation of patterns in these systems and discuss different approaches to characterizing and quantifying patterns. Specific attention is given to the use of data-driven methods to detect patterns in spatial and temporal data that do not make assumptions about underlying statistical properties of patterns. These methods include, for example. decomposition methods, binning based methods, unsupervised classification and temporal stability analysis. We then analyze the value of considering patterns for evaluating model performance, reducing uncertainty in prediction of states and fluxes, as well as for upscaling and downscaling. Finally, we present ways forward to make better use of patterns in the description of flow and transport processes in soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems.