Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

RHESSys: Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System—An Object-Oriented Approach to Spatially Distributed Modeling of Carbon, Water, and Nutrient Cycling

C. L. Tague Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, California

Search for other papers by C. L. Tague in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
and
L. E. Band Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Search for other papers by L. E. Band in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
Print Publication:
01 Dec 2004
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/1087-3562(2004)8<1:RRHSSO>2.0.CO;2
Page(s):
1–42
Restricted access

Abstract

Process-based models that can represent multiple and interacting processes provide a framework for combining field-based measurements with evolving science-based models of specific hydroecological processes. Use of these models, however, requires that the representation of processes and key assumptions involved be understood by the user community. This paper provides a full description of process implementation in the most recent version of the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys), a model that has been applied in a wide variety of research settings. An overview of the underlying (Geographic Information System) GIS-based model framework is given followed by a description of the mathematical models used to represent various biogeochemical cycling and hydrologic processes including vertical and lateral hydrologic fluxes, microclimate variability, canopy radiation transfer, vegetation and soil microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling. An example application of RHESSys for a small forested watershed as part of the Baltimore Long-Term Ecological Research site is included to illustrate use of the model in exploring spatial-temporal dynamics and the coupling between hydrology and biogeochemical cycling.

* Corresponding author address: C.L. Tague, Department of Geography, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4493. ctague@mail.sdsu.edu

Abstract

Process-based models that can represent multiple and interacting processes provide a framework for combining field-based measurements with evolving science-based models of specific hydroecological processes. Use of these models, however, requires that the representation of processes and key assumptions involved be understood by the user community. This paper provides a full description of process implementation in the most recent version of the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys), a model that has been applied in a wide variety of research settings. An overview of the underlying (Geographic Information System) GIS-based model framework is given followed by a description of the mathematical models used to represent various biogeochemical cycling and hydrologic processes including vertical and lateral hydrologic fluxes, microclimate variability, canopy radiation transfer, vegetation and soil microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling. An example application of RHESSys for a small forested watershed as part of the Baltimore Long-Term Ecological Research site is included to illustrate use of the model in exploring spatial-temporal dynamics and the coupling between hydrology and biogeochemical cycling.

* Corresponding author address: C.L. Tague, Department of Geography, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4493. ctague@mail.sdsu.edu

Save
Cover Earth Interactions
Earth Interactions

  • Aber, J. D. and J. M. Melillo. 1991. Terrestrial Ecosystems. Saunders College Publishing,. 429. pp.

  • Ambroise, B., K. J. Beven, and J. Freer. 1996. Towards a generalisation of the topmodel concepts: Topographic indices of hydrological similarity. Water Resour. Res 32:2135–2145.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Band, L. 1993. Effect of land surface representation on forest water and carbon budgets. J. Hydrol 150:749–772.

  • Band, L., D. Peterson, S. Running, J. Coughlan, R. Lammers, J. Dungan, and R. Nemani. 1991. Forest ecosystem processes at the watershed scale: Basis for distributed simulation. Ecol. Modell 56:171–196.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Band, L., J. Patterson, R. Nemani, and S. Running. 1993. Forest ecosystem processes at the watershed scale: Incorporating hillslope hydrology. Agric. For. Meteor 63:93–126.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Band, L., C. Tague, S. Brun, D. Tenenbaum, and R. Fernandes. 2000. Modelling watersheds as spatial object hierarchies: Structure and dynamics. Trans. Geogr. Info. Syst 4:181–196.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Band, L. and P. Groffman. 2001. Forest ecosystem processes at the watershed scale: Hydrological and ecological controls of nitrogen export. Hydrol. Processes 15:2013–2028.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Baron, J. S., M. D. Hartman, T. G. F. Kittel, L. E. Band, D. S. Ojima, and R. B. Lammers. 1998. Effects of land cover, water redistribution, and temperature on ecosystem processes in the South Platte basin. Ecol. Appl 8:1037–1051.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Beven, K. and M. Kirkby. 1979. A physically-based variable contributing area model of basin hydrology. Hydrol. Sci. Bull 24:43–69.

  • Chen, J., P. M. Rich, S. Gower, J. Norman, and S. Plummer. 1997. Leaf area index of boreal forests: Theory, techniques, and measurements. J. Geophys. Res 102:29429–29444.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Chen, J., J. Liu, J. Cihlar, and M. Goulden. 1999. Daily canopy photosynthesis model through temporal and spatial scaling for remote sensing applications. Ecol. Modell 124:99–119.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Clapp, R. and G. Hornberger. 1978. Empirical equations for some soil hydraulic properties. Water. Resour. Res 14:601–604.

  • Coughlan, J. and S. Running. 1997. Regional ecosystem simulation: A general model for simulating snow accumulation and melt in mountainous terrain. Landscape Ecol 12:119–136.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Creed, I. and L. Band. 1998. Exploring functional similarity in the export of nitrate-n from forested catchments: A mechanistic modeling approach. Water Resour. Res 34:3079–3093.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Creed, I., C. Tague, R. Swanson, and R. L. Rothwell. 2000. The potential impacts of harvesting on the hydrologic dynamics of boreal watersheds. Proc. American Geophysical Union 2000 Spring Meeting, Washington, D. C., Amer. Geophys. Union.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Croley, T. 1989. Veritable evaporation modeling on the Laurentian Great Lakes. Water Resour. Res 25:781–792.

  • Daly, C., R. Neilson, and D. Phillips. 1994. A statistical–topographic model for mapping climatological precipitation over mountainous terrain. J. Appl. Meteor 33:140–157.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Dickenson, R., M. Shaikh, R. Bryant, and L. Graumlich. 1998. Interactive canopies for a climate model. J. Climate 11:2823–2836.

  • Dingman, S. 1994. Physical Hydrology. Prentice Hall, 646 pp.

  • Dunne, T. and L. Leopold. 1979. Water in Environmental Planning. W. H. Freeman and Company, 818 pp.

  • Eagleson, P. 1978. Climate, soil and vegetation. 3. A simplified model of soil moisture movement in the liquid phase. Water Resour. Res 14.722–730.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Evans, J. and A. Jakeman. 1998. Development of a simple, catchment-scale, rainfall–evapotranspiration–runoff model. Environ. Modell. Software 13:385–393.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Farquhar, G. and S. vonCaemmerer. 1982. Modeling photosynthetic response to environmental conditions. Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology O. Lange et al., Eds., New Series, Vol. 12B, Springer-Verlag, 549–587.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gold, A., P. Groffman, K. Addy, D. Kellog, M. Stolt, and A. Rosenblatt. 2001. Landscape attributes as controls on groundwater nitrate removal capacity of riparian zones. J. Amer. Water Resour. Assoc 37:1457–1464.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Green, W. and G. Ampt. 1911. Studies on soil physics. 1: The flow of air and water through soils. J. Agric. Sci 4:1–24.

  • Hartman, M., J. Baron, R. Lammers, B. Cline, and L. T. Band. 1999. Simulations of snow distribution and hydrology in a mountain basin. Water Resour. Res 35:1587–1603.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Heddeland, I. and D. Lettenmaier. 1995. Hydrological Modeling of Boreal Forest Ecosystems. Water Resource Series, Vol. 14, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Washington, 38 pp.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jarvis, P. 1976. The interpretations of the variations in leaf water potential and stomatal conductance found in canopies in the field. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London B273:593–610.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jones, H. 1992. Plants and Microclimate: A Quantitative Approach to Plant Physiology. Cambridge University Press, 452 pp.

  • Kelliher, F., T. Black, and D. Price. 1986. Estimating the effects of understory removal from a douglas fir forest using a two-layer canopy evapotranspiration model. Water Resour. Res 22:1891–1899.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Krezek, C. 2001. Climatic regulation of peak flows and their contributing source areas under natural and disturbed conditions in the carnation creek watershed, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. M.S. thesis, University Western Ontario, Plant Science and Environmental Studies, 255 pp.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lammers, R. and L. Band. 1990. Automating object descriptions of drainage basins. Comput. Geosci 16:787–810.

  • Lammers, R. and C. Tague. 1997. Scaling behaviour of watershed processes. Scaling-Up: From Cell to Landscape, P. van Gardingen, G. Foody, and P. Curran, Eds., Cambridge University Press, 295–317.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Landsberg, J. and R. Waring. 1997. A generalized model of forest productivity using simplified concepts of radiation-use efficiency, carbon balance and partitioning. For. Ecol. Manage 95:209–228.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Laramie, R. and J. Schaake Jr. 1972. Simulation of the continuous snowmelt process. Tech. Rep. 143, Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Laundrum, L., C. L. Tague, and J. Baron. 2002. Modeling hydrologic and biogeochemical processes in Loch Vale watershed using the regional hydroecological simulation system (rhessys). Proc. 36th Annual Geological Society of America, South-Central Section Meeting, Alpine, TX, Geological Society of America, South-Central Section.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Luce, C. and T. Cundy. 1994. Parameter identification for a runoff model for forest roads. Water Resour. Res 30:1057–1069.

  • Mackay, D. and L. Band. 1997. Forest ecosystem processes at the watershed scale: Dynamic coupling of distributed hydrology and canopy growth. Hydrol. Proc 11:1197–1217.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Manley, R. 1977. The soil moisture component of mathematical catchment simulation models. J. Hydrol 35:341–356.

  • McDonnell, J. 1990. A rationale for old water discharge through macropores in a steep humid catchment. Water Resour. Res 26:2821–2832.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Medlyn, B. E. Coauthors 2001. Stomatal conductance of forest species after long-term exposure to elevated CO2 concentration: A synthesis. New Phytologist 149:247–264.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mitchell, S. W. and F. Csillag. 2000. Does pattern matter? Handling bias, uncertainty, and stability of predicted vegetation growth in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. Proc. Fourth Int. Conf. on Integrating GIS and Environmental Modeling (GIS/EM4): Problems, Prospects and Research Needs, Banff, Canada.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Monteith, J. 1965. Evaporation and the environment. Proceedings of the 19th Symposium of the Society for Experimental Biology, Cambridge University Press, 205–233.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Nash, I. and I. Sutcliffe. 1970. Streamflow forecasting through conceptual models. J. Hydrol 10:282–290.

  • Norman, J. 1981. Simulation of microclimates. Biometeorology in Integrated Pest Management, J. Hatfield and I. J. Thomson, Eds., Academic Press, 65–99.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Oke, T. 1987. Boundary Layer Climates. 2d ed. University Press, 450 pp.

  • Parton, W., A. Mosier, D. Ojima, D. Valentine, D. Schimel, K. Weier, and A. Kulmala. 1996. Generalized model for N2 and N2O production from nitrification and denitrification. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 10:401–412.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Peters, D., J. Buttle, C. Taylor, and B. LaZerte. 1995. Runoff production in a forested, shallow soil Canadian shield basin. Water Resour. Res 31:1291–1304.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Phillip, J. 1957. The theory of infiltration: 4. Sorptivity and algebraic infiltration equation. Soil Sci 84:257–264.

  • Quinn, P., K. Beven, P. Chevallier, and O. Planchon. 1991. The prediction of hillslope flow paths for distributed hydrological modeling using digital terrain models. Hydrol. Proc 5:59–79.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Refsgaard, J. and B. Storm. 1995. MIKE SHE. Computer Models of Watershed Hydrology, V. Singh, Ed., Water Resources Publications, 809–846.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Running, S. and J. Coughlan. 1988. A general model of forest ecosystem processes for regional applications: Hydrologic balance, canopy gas exchange and primary production processes. Ecol. Modell 42:125–154.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Running, S. and E. Hunt. 1993. Generalization of a forest ecosystem process model for other biomes, BIOME-BGC and an application for global-scale models. Scaling Physiological Processes: Leaf to Globe, J. R. Ehleringer and C. Field, Eds., Academic Press, 141–158.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Running, S., R. Nemani, and R. Hungerfored. 1987. Extrapolation of synoptic meteorological data in mountainous terrain and its use for simulating forest evapotranspiration and photosynthesis. Can. J. For. Res 17:472–483.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Running, S., D. L. Peterson, L. E. Band, D. F. Potts, L. L. Pierce, and M. A. Spanner. 1989. Mapping regional forest evapotranspiration and photosynthesis by coupling satellite data with ecosystem simulation. Ecology 70:1090–1101.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ryan, M. G. 1991. Effects of climate change on plant respiration. Ecol. Appl 1:157–167.

  • Tague, C. and L. Band. 2001. Simulating the impact of road construction and forest harvesting on hydrologic response using rhessys. Earth Surface Processes Landforms 26:135–151.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Tague, C., P. Groffman, and K. Belt. 2000. Spatially distributed modeling of the hydro-geologic and ecologic controls on nitrogen cycling and nitrate export for a small forested watersheds. Proc. American Geophysical Union 2000 Spring Meeting, Washington, D. C., Amer. Geophys. Union.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Thornton, P. 1998. Regional ecosystem simulation: Combining surface and satellite based observations to study linkages between terrestrial energy and mass budgets. Ph.D. thesis, School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula, 200 pp.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Thornton, P., S. Running, and M. White. 1997. Generating surfaces of daily meteorological variables over large regions of complex terrain. J. Hydrol 190:214–251.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • vanGenuchten, M. and D. Nielsen. 1984. On describing and predicting the hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils. Ann. Geophys 3:615–628.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Vertessy, R., T. Hatton, P. O'Shaughnessy, and M. Jayasuriya. 1993. Predicting water yield from a mountain ash forest catchment using a terrain analysis based catchment model. J. Hydrol 150:665–700.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Walko, R. Coauthors 2000. Coupled atmosphere–biophysics–hydrology models for environmental modeling. J. Appl. Meteor 39:931–944.

  • Waring, R. and S. Running. 1998. Forest Ecosystems: Analysis at Multiple Scales. Academic Press, 370 pp.

  • Watson, F., R. Vertessy, and R. Grayson. 1999. Large scale modelling of forest hydrological processes and their long term effect on water yield. Hydrol. Processes 13:689–700.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Webster, K., I. Creed, and C. Tague. 2001. Modeling n export from the Noland Divide watershed: The importance of climate on nitrate-n production and transport. Gordon Research Conference on Forested Catchments: Hydrological, Geochemical, and Biological Processes, Andover, NH.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wemple, B. C., J. Jones, and G. Grant. 1996. Channel network extension by logging roads in two basins, Western Cascades, Oregon. Water Resour. Bull 32:1195–1207.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • White, M., P. Thornton, and S. Running. 1997. A continental phenology model for monitoring vegetation responses to interannual climatic variability. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 11:217–234.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wigmosta, M., L. Vail, and D. Lettenmaier. 1994. Distributed hydrology–vegetation model for complex terrain. Water Resour. Res 30:1665–1679.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Williams, T. and L. Flanagan. 1997. Effect of changes in water content on photosynthesis, transpiration and discrimination agains 13CO2 and C18O16O in pleurozium and sphagnum. Oecologica 108:34–46.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Zheng, D., E. Hunt, and S. Running. 1993. A daily soil temperature model based on air temperature and precipitation for continental applications. Climate Res 2:183–191.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 0 0 0
Full Text Views 7202 2009 157
PDF Downloads 3696 1141 91