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Advancing ecohydrological modelling : coupling LPJ-GUESS with ParFlow for integrated vegetation and surface-subsurface hydrology simulations

Jia, Zitong ; Chen, Shouzhi LU ; Fu, Yongshuo H. ; Belda, David Martín ; Wårlind, David LU orcid ; Olin, Stefan LU orcid ; Xu, Chongyu and Tang, Jing LU orcid (2026) In Geoscientific Model Development 19(4). p.1727-1747
Abstract

Climate change accelerates the global hydrological cycle, which has escalating impacts on human health and the socioeconomic development. However, many existing Earth system models neglect the more complex processes of topography-driven vegetation–surface–groundwater interactions, thereby failing to accurately capture climate-hydrological responses. To address this gap, we integrate the three-dimensional surface-subsurface hydrological model ParFlow with the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS to investigate how lateral groundwater flow and vegetation dynamics jointly regulate hydrological fluxes. The fully coupled ParFlow-LPJ-GUESS (PF-LPJG) model and stand-alone LPJ-GUESS model were used to run hydrological simulations at a... (More)

Climate change accelerates the global hydrological cycle, which has escalating impacts on human health and the socioeconomic development. However, many existing Earth system models neglect the more complex processes of topography-driven vegetation–surface–groundwater interactions, thereby failing to accurately capture climate-hydrological responses. To address this gap, we integrate the three-dimensional surface-subsurface hydrological model ParFlow with the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS to investigate how lateral groundwater flow and vegetation dynamics jointly regulate hydrological fluxes. The fully coupled ParFlow-LPJ-GUESS (PF-LPJG) model and stand-alone LPJ-GUESS model were used to run hydrological simulations at a resolution of 10 km across the Danube River Basin. A comprehensive evaluation of multiple hydrologic variables – including streamflow, surface soil moisture (SM), evapotranspiration (ET), and water table depth (WTD) was conducted using in situ and remote sensing (RS) observations based on a 38 year (1980–2018) model simulation. The results demonstrate that the PF-LPJG model substantially improves streamflow and surface soil moisture simulations without requiring parameter calibration compared to stand-alone LPJ-GUESS, mitigates the underestimation of summer low flows during dry years, increases the accuracy of peak flow timing in wet years, and achieves a Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) > 0.5 and Spearman’s ρ > 0.80 at over 80 % of gauging stations. Seasonal soil moisture anomalies are better captured (R = 0.51) compared to satellite-based products. Additionally, the modelled WTD agrees well with in-situ monitoring-well data, as indicated by a low RSR value (∼ 1.31, Root Mean Square Error-observations Standard deviation Ratio). Notably, the coupled model improves the representation of bare-soil evaporation and reduces transpiration-to-evaporation (T /E) ratio fluctuations, aligning more closely with the GLEAM v4.2 product. The coupled model PF-LPJG entails a mechanistic framework for capturing bidirectional interactions among surface-subsurface water, vegetation dynamics and ecosystem biogeochemical processes, which can be applied to other catchments or climatic conditions to deeply analyze climate-induced modification on vegetation-water-carbon interactions.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Geoscientific Model Development
volume
19
issue
4
pages
21 pages
publisher
Copernicus GmbH
external identifiers
  • scopus:105031698705
ISSN
1991-959X
DOI
10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) 2026.
id
56a3a7dc-63d6-40b4-bd17-5525c48ce9d5
date added to LUP
2026-07-29 18:33:29
date last changed
2026-08-10 14:12:54
@article{56a3a7dc-63d6-40b4-bd17-5525c48ce9d5,
  abstract     = {{<p>Climate change accelerates the global hydrological cycle, which has escalating impacts on human health and the socioeconomic development. However, many existing Earth system models neglect the more complex processes of topography-driven vegetation–surface–groundwater interactions, thereby failing to accurately capture climate-hydrological responses. To address this gap, we integrate the three-dimensional surface-subsurface hydrological model ParFlow with the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS to investigate how lateral groundwater flow and vegetation dynamics jointly regulate hydrological fluxes. The fully coupled ParFlow-LPJ-GUESS (PF-LPJG) model and stand-alone LPJ-GUESS model were used to run hydrological simulations at a resolution of 10 km across the Danube River Basin. A comprehensive evaluation of multiple hydrologic variables – including streamflow, surface soil moisture (SM), evapotranspiration (ET), and water table depth (WTD) was conducted using in situ and remote sensing (RS) observations based on a 38 year (1980–2018) model simulation. The results demonstrate that the PF-LPJG model substantially improves streamflow and surface soil moisture simulations without requiring parameter calibration compared to stand-alone LPJ-GUESS, mitigates the underestimation of summer low flows during dry years, increases the accuracy of peak flow timing in wet years, and achieves a Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) &gt; 0.5 and Spearman’s ρ &gt; 0.80 at over 80 % of gauging stations. Seasonal soil moisture anomalies are better captured (R = 0.51) compared to satellite-based products. Additionally, the modelled WTD agrees well with in-situ monitoring-well data, as indicated by a low RSR value (∼ 1.31, Root Mean Square Error-observations Standard deviation Ratio). Notably, the coupled model improves the representation of bare-soil evaporation and reduces transpiration-to-evaporation (T /E) ratio fluctuations, aligning more closely with the GLEAM v4.2 product. The coupled model PF-LPJG entails a mechanistic framework for capturing bidirectional interactions among surface-subsurface water, vegetation dynamics and ecosystem biogeochemical processes, which can be applied to other catchments or climatic conditions to deeply analyze climate-induced modification on vegetation-water-carbon interactions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Jia, Zitong and Chen, Shouzhi and Fu, Yongshuo H. and Belda, David Martín and Wårlind, David and Olin, Stefan and Xu, Chongyu and Tang, Jing}},
  issn         = {{1991-959X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{1727--1747}},
  publisher    = {{Copernicus GmbH}},
  series       = {{Geoscientific Model Development}},
  title        = {{Advancing ecohydrological modelling : coupling LPJ-GUESS with ParFlow for integrated vegetation and surface-subsurface hydrology simulations}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026}},
  doi          = {{10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}