With only stochastic and non-linear dynamics methods, the Earth surface component of climate cannot be modeled correctly

An important component of Earth's climate system is the land surface atmosphere interaction. For theoretical and empirical reasons, the strongest constraints to vegetation productivity, and thus drawdown of atmospheric CO2, as well as water use (evapotranspiration) are edaphic in nature. The appropriate treatment of the soil is related only to one of the topics listed in the call for abstract submissions, namely statistical mechanics. A new water balance treatment developed based on combining ecological optimality with distinct percolation scaling results for solute transport in directed as well as random networks as applied to root growth and soil formation delivers observed results for net primary productivity of vegetation, streamflow elasticity, evapotranspiration, plant species richness, and the scale dependence of the water cycle with a single parameter, which can be evaluated in a 2D or a 3D fractal model of plant roots. Most of the results summarized are generated from the 2D (thin soil) model, meaning that most of the above are consistent with predictions that use no adjustable or unknown parameters at all, merely their universal values from percolation theory.