ISLSCP II Total Plant-Available Soil Water Storage Capacity of the Rooting Zone

This data set provides two estimates of the geographic distribution of the total plant-available soil water storage capacity of the rooting zone ("rooting zone water storage size") on a 1.0 degree global grid. Two inverse modeling methods were used. The first modeling approach (optimization) was based on the assumption that vegetation has adapted to the environment such that it makes optimum use of water (Kleidon and Heimann 1998). The second method (assimilation) was based on the assumption that green vegetation indicates sufficient available water for transpiration (Knorr 1997). The data set was developed to provide alternative means to describe rooting characteristics of the global vegetation cover for land surface and climate models in support of the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection. There are three files in this data set.