Articles | Volume 19, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-3427-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-3427-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Model evaluation paper
| 
27 Apr 2026
Model evaluation paper |
| 27 Apr 2026
| 27 Apr 2026
Benchmarking soil moisture and its relationship to ecohydrologic variables in Earth System Models
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Nathan Collier
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Yaoping Wang
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Jiafu Mao
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Adrian Harpold
University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
Steven A. Kannenberg
Department of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Gerbrand Koren
Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB Utrecht, the Netherlands
Mukesh Kumar
Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Pushpendra Raghav
Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Pallav Ray
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA
Mingjie Shi
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Sreedevi P. Vasu
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA
Huiqi Wang
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Qing Zhu
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Forrest M. Hoffman
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Model code and software
International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Package (v002.00) N. Collier et al. https://doi.org/10.18139/ILAMB.v002.00/1251621
Short summary
Soil moisture helps control how plants grow and how land exchanges water and energy with the atmosphere. We evaluated how well 16 Earth System Models represent soil moisture and its links to plant activity using a benchmarking system and observational data. Many models simulate surface soil moisture well but show larger errors deeper in the soil and in colder regions. Models that represent plant–soil water interactions more directly better capture how ecosystems respond to water availability.
Soil moisture helps control how plants grow and how land exchanges water and energy with the...
