the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
05 Jan 2021
05 Jan 2021
STH-net: a model-driven soil monitoring network for process-based hydrological modelling from the pedon to the hillslope scale
- 1Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
- 2Dept. Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, Leipzig, 04318, Germany
- 3Dept. Soil System Science, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, Halle (Saale), 06120, Germany
- aformerly at: Dept. Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, Leipzig, 04318, Germany
- 1Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany
- 2Dept. Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, Leipzig, 04318, Germany
- 3Dept. Soil System Science, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, Halle (Saale), 06120, Germany
- aformerly at: Dept. Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, Leipzig, 04318, Germany
Abstract. The Schäfertal hillslope site is part of the TERENO Harz/Central German Lowland Observatory and its soil water dynamics is being monitored intensively as part of an integrated, long-term, multi-scale and multi-temporal research framework linking hydrological, pedological, atmospheric and biodiversity-related research to investigate the influences of climate and land use change on the terrestrial system. Here, a new soil monitoring network, indicated as STH-net, has been recently implemented to provide high-resolution data about the most relevant hydrological variables and local soil properties. The monitoring network is spatially optimized, based on previous knowledge from soil mapping and soil moisture monitoring, in order to capture the spatial variability of soil properties and soil water dynamics along a catena across the site as well as in depth. The STH-net comprises eight stations instrumented with time-domain reflectometry (TDR) probes, soil temperature probes and piezometers. Furthermore, a weather station provides data about the meteorological variables. A detailed soil characterization exists for locations where the TDR probes are installed. All data are measured at a 10-minutes interval since January 1st, 2019. The STH-net is intended to provide scientists with high-quality data needed for developing and testing modelling approaches in the context of vadose-zone hydrology at spatial scales ranging from the pedon to the hillslope. The data are available from the EUDAT portal (https://b2share.eudat.eu/records/e2a2135bb1634a97abcedf8a461c0909 ) (Martini et al., 2020).
Edoardo Martini et al.
Status: open (until 02 Mar 2021)
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CC1: 'Referee Comment on essd-2020-363', Kris Van Looy, 15 Jan 2021
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This preprint describes in a well-structured manner the development and access to a rich dataset of a critical zone observatory on a Central German hillslope that was instrumented with sets of TDR probes and coupled temperature probes and piezometers. As the authors state such dataset offers broad opportunities for modelling applications for hydrological models and land surface models. The detail and information in the dataset is well illustrated with some graphs showing hourly soil water content and soil temperature data at different depths for different plots through the two-year dataset.
Some specific comments:
The title mentions model application limited to only hydrological models; whereas to my opinion also land surface models and earth system modelling applications, oriented at energy exchanges might benefit from these detailed data on both hydrological and temperature/meteorological data at this high resolution. I would also like to see the other measured parameters (and references to data sets) at this site; it is mentioned that it is operational since 2010 and that other parameters were measured. Linkage to these measurements would strongly increase the attractiveness and broader applicability of the dataset.
Line 22 says high-quality, but for now I would restrict that to mentioning high-resolution data, since the piezometers up to date were not yet high quality, and in figure 5 the results of Probe 4 are incomplete as well. It should also be mentioned in the paper from which date on the data acquisition was properly running and till when these measurements will be sustained, and published (at what interval).
Line 62-63 states: ‘environmental research platforms focusing on the interconnection between physical, chemical and biological processes affecting Earth surface, offer the opportunity to integrate information about different compartments of the environment, scales, and knowledge from different disciplines’ but the reference just refers to hydrological models, so suggest to refer to the research you also contributed to, in Baatz et al 2018: Steering operational synergies in terrestrial observation networks: opportunity for advancing Earth system dynamics modelling, Earth System Dynamics, 9.
Line 67 talks of ‘matter fluxes’ but for the measurements this is abandoned; in this perspective the measurement of EC should also be done and documented since it can interfere with the TDR measurements, and since it can highlight significant temporal process changes.
Line 68 says “soil mapping” but in the soil description only texture is given; this is too often a significant problem with site data descriptions. Soil is more than just texture; we need profile descriptions and soil type identification to interpret the observed data and to ‘relate’ it to other observations. The general description of soil types in the area in Line 88 is not specified to the sampling site.
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RC1: 'Comment on essd-2020-363', Anonymous Referee #1, 19 Jan 2021
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Comment on “STH-net: a model-driven soil monitoring network for process-based hydrological modelling from the pedon to the hillslope scale ” by Martini et al.
The manuscript presents the data set of a new soil monitoring network, providing soil water content measurements from TDR probes, soil temperatures, and meteorological forcing. The paper is well written and the provided data set is of high relevance for hydrology.
I only have few minor comments that need further clarification or additions to the data set.Specific comments:
Measurement interval vs. reported data interval: The measurements are taken in a 10 minute interval. However, the data is reported in an hourly resolution. What is the motivation for this?
Please provide more details on the averaging. Line 197 only states “The original files are averaged to hourly values […]”. For cumulative data like the precipitation I assume it is not the average, but the sum of the the values in the previous hour. For the other values, is it the average of values half an hour before and half an hour after the reported time? Please clarify.
Also, the averaging interval of 12 hours to smooth the water content data seems quite long. This could impact the accuracy of the timing of e.g. the arrival of an infiltration front at a sensor location and reduce the information contained in the data set. For example, on October 4/5, 2019 the water content for T08 increases by about 0.1 in 10 hours (in the reported smoothed data). This indicates that the 12h smoothing interval may have a significant impact on some situations with rapid changes in the water content. Please briefly discuss the impact of the chosen smoothing, consider shorter smoothing intervals or possibly even provide an additional water content data file without this smoothing.Temperature correction of water content measurements: The relative dielectric permittivity of water depends on the temperature. Temperature measurements are available. However, the manuscript does not mention if the dielectric permittivity for water is calculated temperature dependent. If so, please mention this and provide the details, including information on how the more sparse temperature measurements are inter- and extrapolated to the locations of the TDR probes.
There is very little information on the piezometer (e.g. manufacturer and model). The data itself is missing in the data set, although available since March 2020. Is it the goal to include the data into the data set? If so, I would recommend to add the data as part of this revision.
Overall, there is limited information about the different probes and sensors. I would recommend to add a table, that lists measurement range, uncertainty, and resolution for the different sensors.
Is the time reported in UTC or local time? Please mention this.
Line 144: “εsoil is set to 4.6.” Please motivate why this value was chosen.
Technical comments:
Line 67-70: “Specifically, the approach followed at the site accounts for the soil spatial variability through detailed soil mapping and is designed to provide in situ data of, to our knowledge, the best quality available to date, with high temporal resolution and dense coverage in the vertical direction, about the soil water dynamics in the vadose zone and of its boundary conditions.”
There is no further information about the soil mapping in the manuscript. Is this part of a previous publication for this site? If so, please give a reference here.In line 83 “Wollschläger et al., 2018” should be “Wollschläger et al., 2017” (at least according to the References).
Lines 112-114: “Each of the instrumented soil profiles located on the hillslopes features seven TDR probes installed at the depths of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 m, whilst the profiles at P4 and P5 feature additional TDR probes at the depths of 0.8, 0.9, 1 and 1.1 m in order to cover the deeper soils.”
P3 seems to also have a probe in the depth of 0.8 m.Some of the figures have a rather low quality/resolution. This should be improved.
Edoardo Martini et al.
Data sets
STH-net Martini, Edoardo, Kögler, Simon, Kreck, Manuel, Werban, Ulrike, Wollschläger, Ute, and Zacharias, Steffen https://doi.org/10.23728/b2share.e2a2135bb1634a97abcedf8a461c0909
Edoardo Martini et al.
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STH-net, recently implemented at the Schäfertal hillslope site (Germany). The STH-net provides high-quality data (soil water content, soil temperature, depth to groundwater and meteorological variables – measured at a 10-minutes interval since January 1st, 2019) for developing and testing modelling approaches in the context of vadose-zone hydrology at spatial scales ranging from the pedon to the hillslope.
STH-net, recently...