Advancing ecohydrological modelling: coupling LPJ-GUESS  with ParFlow for integrated vegetation and surface-subsurface hydrology simulations

Jia, Zitong; Chen, Shouzhi; Fu, Yongshuo H.; Martín Belda, David; Wårlind, David; Olin, Stefan; Xu, Chongyu; Tang, Jing

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 4

Model description paper

|

27 Feb 2026

Model description paper |

| 27 Feb 2026

Advancing ecohydrological modelling: coupling LPJ-GUESS with ParFlow for integrated vegetation and surface-subsurface hydrology simulations

Zitong Jia, Shouzhi Chen, Yongshuo H. Fu, David Martín Belda, David Wårlind, Stefan Olin, Chongyu Xu, and Jing Tang

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1727-2026-supplement

Model code and software

Advancing Ecohydrological Modelling: Coupling LPJ-GUESS with ParFlow for Integrated Vegetation and Surface-Subsurface Hydrology Simulations J. Zitong et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16908049

LPJ-GUESS Release v4.0.1 model code (4.0.1) M. Lindeskog et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8070582

parflow/parflow: ParFlow Version 3.13.0 (v3.13.0) S. Smith et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10989198

Short summary

Groundwater sustains vegetation and regulates land-atmosphere exchanges, yet most Earth system models oversimplify its dynamics. Our study develops an integrated framework coupling a dynamic vegetation model with the three-dimensional hydrological model ParFlow to explicitly represent groundwater-vegetation interactions. The results provide evidence that groundwater flow strongly regulates water exchanges and provides a powerful tool to improve simulations of water cycles in Earth system models.