The “invisible components” of the water budget, such as evapotranspiration (ET), infiltration, soil moisture recharge, sublimation, percolation, and groundwater flow, can provide a better understanding of ecosystem functioning. But they are often challenging to quantify. For example, ET, which comprises biotic canopy transpiration (T) and abiotic direct evaporation (E), is typically quantified in a lumped form. Land surface models (LSMs) also face challenges in accurately partitioning water budget components due to uncertainties in their structure and parameterization. We welcome contributions that advance theories, measurements (e.g., isotope techniques, high-frequency Eddy Covariance data processing), modeling, and application of water budget partitioning (e.g., ET, groundwater recharge, soil moisture) using different methods including remote sensing, machine learning, and data assimilation in LSMs, hydrologic, and crop models. We also encourage submissions that demonstrate the utility of partitioned products in answering interesting science questions, including ecosystem resilience, drought responses, soil moisture-ET coupling, or climate feedback.

• B - Biogeosciences
• GC - Global Environmental Change