Probabilistic modeling of soil moisture dynamics in a revegetated desert area

Soil moisture is the key link between land hydrological and ecological processes which plays an important role in the terrestrial water cycle. As extreme weather events have increased in recent years, the stochastic simulation of soil moisture has gradually become the focus of ecohydrology research. Based on continuous monitoring of soil moisture data from 2008 to 2011, and historical precipitation data from 1991 to 2011, combined with the Rodriguez-Iturbe soil moisture dynamic stochastic model, soil moisture dynamics and its probability density function in a revegetated desert area was simulated. Results show that annual soil moisture dynamic changes of the revegetated desert area during the growing season complied with rainfall distribution; soil moisture probability presents a single-peak distribution in the plant rhizosphere layer (0-60 cm). The peak width in the 20 cm topsoil was wider than in other soils, and the distribution presented the strong fluctuations and multiple aggregates. The peak widths of 40 cm and 60 cm soil moisture probability distribution were small, which are in accordance with simulated results of the Rodriguez-Iturbe model. This confirms that the Rodriguez-Iturbe model has good applicability and can well simulate the statistical characteristics of soil moisture in an arid revegetated desert area.