It is commonly accepted that vegetation patterns and water supply mutually define each other. In mangroves, soil water salinity and the corresponding osmotic potential are the main drivers of plant water supply. Below-ground processes thus may be key for the structure and dynamics of mangrove stands. Nevertheless, existing simulation models describing mangrove forest dynamics do not quantify the water uptake of the single plant from the soil and traditionally neglect any feedback of the vegetation on the water availability, but instead use empirical, statistical models for plant competition affecting growth. We provide a brief review on the state of the art of mangrove forest models with an emphasis on how below-ground processes are regarded. We follow mainly two directions: (1) phenomenological concepts for competition for below-ground resources and (2) assessing the impact of salinity and water supply on the vegetation and possible feedback mechanisms from the vegetation to the below-ground conditions. We hypothesise that a coupled vegetation-groundwater model would avail us to better understand the dynamics and properties of mangrove systems, their capability to persist or rehabilitate under stressful hydrological conditions, as well as their response to environmental changes related to the groundwater system and transport. The benefits of such a joint approach would (i) constitute an intrinsic below-ground competition description close to the governing processes and (ii) concurrently exploit secondary, constraining information from vegetation patterns to derive a new concept to acquire knowledge on subsurface heterogeneity and parametrisation. The aim of this paper is to lay the theoretical groundwork and guidelines for future modellers to follow in the creation of a more realistic mangrove model coupling above- and below-ground processes. The proposed modelling approach has the potential to be useful for a broad audience based particularly in forest sciences and plant ecology in general, but also for hydrodynamic modelling (e.g. subsurface flow and transport detected by vegetation patterns as above-ground proxy).

中文翻译：

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红树林中植被与水之间的相互作用：红树林模型和生态研究的新观点

人们普遍认为，植被类型和供水相互之间是相互定义的。在红树林中，土壤水盐度和相应的渗透势是植物供水的主要驱动力。因此，地下过程可能是红树林林分结构和动力学的关键。然而，现有的描述红树林动态的模拟模型并不能量化单株植物从土壤中吸收的水量，并且传统上忽略了植被对水有效性的任何反馈，而是使用经验性统计模型来影响植物生长的竞争。我们简要介绍了红树林模型的最新状态，重点是如何考虑地下过程。我们主要遵循两个方向：（1）竞争地下资源的现象学概念，以及（2）评估盐分和水供应对植被的影响以及从植被到地下条件的可能反馈机制。我们假设植被-地下水耦合模型将有助于我们更好地理解红树林系统的动力学和特性，在压力水文条件下的持久性或恢复能力，以及它们对与地下水系统和运输相关的环境变化的响应。这种联合方式的好处是：（i）构成了一个与治理流程接近的固有的地下竞争描述，以及（ii）同时开发了次要的，约束来自植被格局的信息以得出一个新概念，以获取有关地下异质性和参数化的知识。本文的目的是为将来的建模人员奠定理论基础，并为以后的建模人员在建立更现实的红树林模型（结合地上和地下过程）时遵循这些方法奠定基础。所提出的建模方法具有潜力，特别是对于森林科学和植物生态学领域的广大读者而言，还可以用于流体动力学建模（例如，地下流动和植被模式检测为地面代理的运输）。