Understanding freshwater fluxes at continental scales will help us better predict hydrologic response and manage our terrestrial water resources. The partitioning of evapotranspiration into bare soil ...evaporation and plant transpiration remains a key uncertainty in the terrestrial water balance. We used integrated hydrologic simulations that couple vegetation and land-energy processes with surface and subsurface hydrology to study transpiration partitioning at the continental scale. Both latent heat flux and partitioning are connected to water table depth, and including lateral groundwater flow in the model increases transpiration partitioning from 47 ± 13 to 62 ± 12%. This suggests that lateral groundwater flow, which is generally simplified or excluded in Earth system models, may provide a missing link for reconciling observations and global models of terrestrial water fluxes.
► A new, terrain following grid formulation is developed and implemented in the parallel, integrated hydrologic model, ParFlow. ► The full, analytical Jacobian for this approach is developed and is ...used as a preconditioner for the solution technique. ► The terrain following formulation is verified against the orthogonal formulation for simple and complex cases. ► This approach scales efficiently out to 16,384 processors for a problem of 8.1Billion unknowns. ► This numerical advancement enables large-scale, high resolution, integrated hydrologic modeling, e.g., continental scale.
A terrain-following grid formulation (TFG) is presented for simulation of coupled variably-saturated subsurface and surface water flow. The TFG is introduced into the integrated hydrologic model, ParFlow, which uses an implicit, Newton Krylov solution technique. The analytical Jacobian is also formulated and presented and both the diagonal and non-symmetric terms are used to precondition the Krylov linear system. The new formulation is verified against an orthogonal stencil and is shown to provide increased accuracy at lower lateral spatial discretization for hillslope simulations. Using TFG, efficient scaling to a large number of processors (16,384) and a large domain size (8.1 Billion unknowns) is shown. This demonstrates the applicability of this formulation to high-resolution, large-spatial extent hydrology applications where topographic effects are important. Furthermore, cases where the analytical Jacobian is used for the Newton iteration and as a non-symmetric preconditioner for the linear system are shown to have faster computation times and better scaling. This demonstrates the importance of solver efficiency in parallel scaling through the use of an appropriate preconditioner.
A warmer climate increases evaporative demand. However, response to warming depends on water availability. Existing earth system models represent soil moisture but simplify groundwater connections, a ...primary control on soil moisture. Here we apply an integrated surface-groundwater hydrologic model to evaluate the sensitivity of shallow groundwater to warming across the majority of the US. We show that as warming shifts the balance between water supply and demand, shallow groundwater storage can buffer plant water stress; but only where shallow groundwater connections are present, and not indefinitely. As warming persists, storage can be depleted and connections lost. Similarly, in the arid western US warming does not result in significant groundwater changes because this area is already largely water limited. The direct response of shallow groundwater storage to warming demonstrates the strong and early effect that low to moderate warming may have on groundwater storage and evapotranspiration.
We study the influence of topography on groundwater fluxes and water table depths across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Groundwater tables are often conceptualized as subdued replicas of ...topography. While it is well known that groundwater configuration is also controlled by geology and climate, nonlinear interactions between these drivers within large real‐world systems are not well understood and are difficult to characterize given sparse groundwater observations. We address this limitation using the fully integrated physical hydrology model ParFlow to directly simulate groundwater fluxes and water table depths within a complex heterogeneous domain that incorporates all three primary groundwater drivers. Analysis is based on a first of its kind, continental‐scale, high‐resolution (1 km), groundwater‐surface water simulation spanning more than 6.3 million km2. Results show that groundwater fluxes are most strongly driven by topographic gradients (as opposed to gradients in pressure head) in humid regions with small topographic gradients or low conductivity. These regions are generally consistent with the topographically controlled groundwater regions identified in previous studies. However, we also show that areas where topographic slopes drive groundwater flux do not generally have strong correlations between water table depth and elevation. Nonlinear relationships between topography and water table depth are consistent with groundwater flow systems that are dominated by local convergence and could also be influenced by local variability in geology and climate. One of the strengths of the numerical modeling approach is its ability to evaluate continental‐scale groundwater behavior at a high resolution not possible with other techniques.
Key Points:
Relationships between water table depth and topography are spatially variable
Groundwater follows topography in flat humid regions with low conductivity
Integrated models can evaluate groundwater behavior in large complex systems
The unsatisfactory performance of low‐bandgap mixed tin (Sn)–lead (Pb) halide perovskite subcells has been one of the major obstacles hindering the progress of the power conversion efficiencies ...(PCEs) of all‐perovskite tandem solar cells. By analyzing dark‐current density and distribution, it is identified that charge recombination at grain boundaries is a key factor limiting the performance of low‐bandgap mixed Sn–Pb halide perovskite subcells. It is further found that bromine (Br) incorporation can effectively passivate grain boundaries and lower the dark current density by two–three orders of magnitude. By optimizing the Br concentration, low‐bandgap (1.272 eV) mixed Sn–Pb halide perovskite solar cells are fabricated with open‐circuit voltage deficits as low as 0.384 V and fill factors as high as 75%. The best‐performing device demonstrates a PCE of >19%. The results suggest an important direction for improving the performance of low‐bandgap mixed Sn–Pb halide perovskite solar cells.
Charge recombination at grain boundaries is a key factor limiting the performance of low‐bandgap mixed tin–lead halide perovskite solar cells. It is found that bromine incorporation can passivate grain boundaries and lower the dark current density by two to three orders of magnitude. The champion cell shows an open‐circuit voltage deficit of 0.384 V and power conversion efficiency exceeding 19%.
Interactions between surface and groundwater systems are well-established theoretically and observationally. While numerical models that solve both surface and subsurface flow equations in a single ...framework (matrix) are increasingly being applied, computational limitations have restricted their use to local and regional studies. Regional or watershed-scale simulations have been effective tools for understanding hydrologic processes; however, there are still many questions, such as the adaptation of water resources to anthropogenic stressors and climate variability, that can only be answered across large spatial extents at high resolution. In response to this grand challenge in hydrology, we present the results of a parallel, integrated hydrologic model simulating surface and subsurface flow at high spatial resolution (1 km) over much of continental North America (~ 6.3 M km2). These simulations provide integrated predictions of hydrologic states and fluxes, namely, water table depth and streamflow, at very large scale and high resolution. The physics-based modeling approach used here requires limited parameterizations and relies only on more fundamental inputs such as topography, hydrogeologic properties and climate forcing. Results are compared to observations and provide mechanistic insight into hydrologic process interaction. This study demonstrates both the feasibility of continental-scale integrated models and their utility for improving our understanding of large-scale hydrologic systems; the combination of high resolution and large spatial extent facilitates analysis of scaling relationships using model outputs.
In response to the inherent dynamic nature of the oceans and continuing difficulty in managing ecosystem impacts of fisheries, interest in the concept of dynamic ocean management, or real-time ...management of ocean resources, has accelerated in the last several years. However, scientists have yet to quantitatively assess the efficiency of dynamic management over static management. Of particular interest is how scale influences effectiveness, both in terms of how it reflects underlying ecological processes and how this relates to potential efficiency gains. Here, we address the empirical evidence gap and further the ecological theory underpinning dynamic management. We illustrate, through the simulation of closures across a range of spatiotemporal scales, that dynamic ocean management can address previously intractable problems at scales associated with coactive and social patterns (e.g., competition, predation, niche partitioning, parasitism, and social aggregations). Furthermore, it can significantly improve the efficiency of management: as the resolution of the closures used increases (i.e., as the closures become more targeted), the percentage of target catch forgone or displaced decreases, the reduction ratio (bycatch/catch) increases, and the total time–area required to achieve the desired bycatch reduction decreases. In the scenario examined, coarser scale management measures (annual time–area closures and monthly full-fishery closures) would displace up to four to five times the target catch and require 100–200 times more square kilometer-days of closure than dynamic measures (grid-based closures and move-on rules). To achieve similar reductions in juvenile bycatch, the fishery would forgo or displace between USD 15–52 million in landings using a static approach over a dynamic management approach.
The Urbach energy indicating the width of the exponentially decaying sub-bandgap absorption tail is commonly used as the indicator of electronic quality of thin-film materials used as absorbers in ...solar cells. Urbach energies of hybrid inorganic–organic metal halide perovskites with various anion–cation compositions are measured by photothermal deflection spectroscopy. The variation in anion–cation composition has a substantial effect on the measured Urbach energy and hence the electronic quality of the perovskite. Depending upon the compositions, the Urbach energy varies from 18 to 65 meV for perovskite films with similar bandgap energies. For most of the perovskite compositions studied here including methylammonium (MA) + formamidinium (FA)-based Pb iodides, mixed Sn + Pb narrow-bandgap perovskites with low or intermediate Sn contents, and wide-bandgap FA + Cs- and I + Br-based perovskites, the correlation between the Urbach energy of the perovskite thin film and open-circuit voltage (V OC) deficit for corresponding solar cells shows a direct relationship with reduction of the Urbach energy occurring with a beneficial decrease in the V OC deficit. However, due to issues related to material quality, impurity phases and stability in laboratory ambient air, and unoptimized film processing techniques, the solar cells incorporating Cs-based inorganic and mixed Sn + Pb perovskites with a higher than optimum Sn content show a higher V OC deficit even though the corresponding films show a lower Urbach energy.
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