Root-zone water storage is a core component of many hydrological systems, and a critical variable influencing water transport in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum and biogeochemical processes. However, the dynamics of water bypass and replenishment in root-zone during precipitation infiltration processes have been rarely investigated. Here we employed a piecewise isotope balance method to estimate the proportion of root-zone water replenished by precipitation, and conducted a meta-analysis to check the patterns of water bypass and replenishment in root-zone for various species across five climate zones and examined the potential influencing factors. The results show that high proportion of root-zone water replenishment is likely to appear during the transition period from dry season/soil to wet season/soil. Root-zone water bypass is widespread under various climates, which is likely to occur by downward drainage under wet soil condition or via evaporation loss under high atmospheric demand. Antecedent soil water condition and rooting depth are found to be the two key factors regulating dynamics of root-zone water bypass and replenishment. These findings provide useful insight into our understanding of ecohydrological modeling (e.g., non-well-mixed water pool in soils) and plant responses to precipitation pulses.

根区蓄水是许多水文系统的核心组成部分，是影响土壤-植被-大气连续体和生物地球化学过程中水分输送的关键变量。然而，很少研究降水入渗过程中根区水旁路和补水的动态。在这里，我们采用分段同位素平衡方法来估计降水补充的根区水的比例，并进行了荟萃分析，以检查五个气候区的各种物种在根区的水旁路和补充模式，并检查了潜在的影响因素。结果表明，在旱季/土壤向雨季/土壤的过渡期间，很可能出现高比例的根区补水。根区水旁路在各种气候下普遍存在，这可能通过潮湿土壤条件下的向下排水或在高大气需求下通过蒸发损失发生。发现前期土壤水分条件和生根深度是调节根区水分旁路和补充动态的两个关键因素。这些发现为我们理解生态水文模型（例如，土壤中未充分混合的水池）和植物对降水脉冲的反应提供了有用的见解。