Advances in Geosciences www.adv-geosci.net 1680-7340 1680-7359 21 Transdisciplinary concepts and modelling strategies for the assessment of complex environmental systems 2009 10.5194/adgeo-21-109-2009 http://www.adv-geosci.net/21/109/2009/ http://www.adv-geosci.net/21/109/2009/adgeo-21-109-2009.html http://www.adv-geosci.net/21/109/2009/adgeo-21-109-2009.pdf 109 115 2009-08-12 Modeling of vegetation dynamics in hydrological models for the assessment of the effects of climate change on evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge M. Wegehenkel mwegehenkel@zalf.de Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Institute of Landscape Systems Analysis, Müncheberg, Germany Vegetation affects water balance of the land surface by e.g. storage of precipitation water in the canopy and soil water extraction by transpiration. Therefore, it is essential to consider the role of vegetation in affecting water balance by taking into account the temporal dynamics of e.g. leaf area index, rooting depth and stomatal conductance in hydrological models. However until now, most conceptual hydrological models do not treat vegetation as a dynamic component. This paper presents an analysis of the effects of the application of two different complex vegetation models combined with a hydrological model on the model outputs evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge. Both model combinations were used for the assessment of the effects of climate change on water balance in a mesoscale catchment loctated in the Northeastern German Lowlands. One vegetation model assumes a static vegetation development independent from environmental conditions. The other vegetation model calculates dynamic development of vegetation based on photosynthesis, respiration, allocation, and phenology. 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