This session aims to bring together scientists working in the field of vadose zone hydrology across spatial scales ranging from the pore- to the catchment- and continental scale. Recent regional and continental-scale drought events and flood events urge the need for better understanding the role of vadose zone processes in the Earth system. The state of the vadose zone controls biogeochemical processes, nutrient and pollutant transport, catchment response functions, land-atmosphere exchange, and rainfall-runoff processes. In addition, the vadose zone as part of the critical zone provides important ecosystem services. Key research challenges include amongst others improving characterization of vadose zone properties, reducing uncertainty in quantifying vadose zone water fluxes including exchange with aquifers and surface waters and feedbacks within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum. Guided by advanced sensor technologies, high-frequency observations and reanalysis, scientists are able to bridge scales and deduct processes at unprecedented resolutions for an in-depth more data-driven understanding of vadose zone processes.
In tandem with big data availability, new methods in machine learning and artificial intelligence may provide additional methodological capacity to understand the role of vadose zone, especially when tackling dynamic behavior of vadose zone properties as a result of changing frequency, duration and magnitude of drought and flood events.
We invite you to submit contributions from experimental, field and laboratory studies as well as synthetic and modeling studies from the pore to continental scales. Contributions to this session include soil hydrological processes, characterization of soil properties, soil biogeochemical processes, transport of pollutants, and studies on the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system. Presentations of novel, interdisciplinary approaches and techniques are also highly welcome.