Author(s)

S. Ferrarisfand & C.G. allot

Abstract

The mathematical modeling of plant root uptake in soils is an open issue due, on the one hand, to the complexity of representing roots as mathemat- ical entities, and, on the other hand, to the degree of uncertainty connected to their distribution. Furthermore, a pointwise spatial and temporal knowl- edge of root uptake is not available, thus a modelization of root flow as a separate system is not expected to furnish reliable results. Roots' effects are accounted for in unsaturated flow models as source/sink terms for which a spatial multivariate distribution is here assumed. Within this context, we present the results obtained by three-dimensional simulations of root uptake in a heterogeneous sandy soil. The results are compared with three-dimensional field measurements in order t

Keywords