Reply to Pierret and Lacombe: Global controls on maximum rooting depths remain important

Hydrologic regulation of plant rooting depth: Pay attention to the widespread scenario with intense seasonal groundwater table fluctuation

“…However, Pierret and Lacombe (2) point out that there are some plants extending their roots far below the WTD [figure 3F and figure S6 in Fan et al (1)]. In their reply to those authors, Fan et al (3) propose that some of these exceptions are possibly due to a temporarily shallow water table. However, this phenomenon can be more plausibly explained by groundwater table fluctuation (GTF).…”