Land surface processes and vegetation interaction in a changing climate

The study designs a “proof-of-the-concept” framework allowing one to investigate the propagation of climate disturbances, as inferred, for example, from global circulation models, through the eco-hydrologic system. Two different scenarios are discussed. The first one reproduces current climate and the second one generates future climates based on parameterizations developed in a weather generator. The weather generator reproduces climate statistics over a wide range of temporal scales, from the high frequency extremes, to the low-frequency interannual variability. The generator has been designed to simulate input variables for an ecohydrological model at the hourly scale. The hydro-climatological variables obtained for the two scenarios serve as input to a hydrological model coupled with a model of vegetation dynamics. The latter model parsimoniously parameterizes essential plant life-cycle processes, including phenology. A comparison between the two cases in terms of vegetation response and hydrological states are examined, discussing possible implication of the feedbacks between ecosystem and hydrological cycle in a non-stationary climate.