Carbon isotope discrimination as a surrogate for soil available water capacity in rainfed areas: A study in the Languedoc vineyard plain

Soil available water capacity (SAWC) is a key soil function for plant growth. Classical SAWC characterization requires time consuming determinations of bulk density and specific soil moisture contents. Consequently, these data are extremely sparse in existing soil databases. Using surrogates of the vegetal response to characterize SAWC across a great number of sites constitutes a promising perspective. The carbon isotope ratio (δ13C) measured in...