TY - JOUR AU - Fatichi, Simone AU - Or, Dani AU - Walko, Robert AU - Vereecken, Harry AU - Young, Michael H. AU - Ghezzehei, Teamrat A. AU - Hengl, Tomislav AU - Kollet, Stefan AU - Avissar, Nurit Agam9& Roni TI - Soil structure is an important omission inEarth System Models JO - Nature Communications VL - 11 IS - 1 SN - 2041-1723 CY - [London] PB - Nature Publishing Group UK M1 - FZJ-2021-02003 SP - 522 PY - 2020 AB - Most soil hydraulic information used in Earth System Models (ESMs) is derived from pedo-transfer functions that use easy-to-measure soil attributes to estimate hydraulic parameters. This parameterization relies heavily on soil texture, but overlooks the critical role of soil structure originated by soil biophysical activity. Soil structure omission is pervasive also in sampling and measurement methods used to train pedotransfer functions. Here we show how systematic inclusion of salient soil structural features of biophysical origin affect local and global hydrologic and climatic responses. Locally, including soil structure in models significantly alters infiltration-runoff partitioning and recharge in wet and vegetated regions. Globally, the coarse spatial resolution of ESMs and their inability to simulate intense and short rainfall events mask effects of soil structure on surface fluxes and climate. Results suggest that although soil structure affects local hydrologic response, its implications on global-scale climate remains elusive in current ESMs. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - 31988306 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000512539300002 DO - DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-14411-z UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/892294 ER -