Potential evapotranspiration and its attribution over the past 50 years in the arid region of Northwest China

Evaporation paradox and its attribution have become a hot research topic in hydrology in recent years. This study estimates the potential evapotranspiration (ET₀) using modified Penman–Monteith method and analyzes the corresponding trend attribution based on the long‐term meteorological data collected at 81 ground‐based meteorological stations in Northwestern arid region of China during the period 1958–2010. The analysis results show: (1) The ET₀ has exhibited an obvious decreasing trend until the early 1990s; however, the downward trend has been reversed to an upward trend after then. (2) Decrease in diurnal temperature range (DTR) and wind speed (WS) may lead to the decrease of ET₀ during 1956–1993. The change of dominant factors in the ET₀ trend has differences after the early 1990s; observed increase in WS is the primary factor contributing to the reversion of ET₀. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regional crop water use assessment using Landsat-derived evapotranspiration

Reliable information on water use and availability at basin and field scales are important to ensure the optimized constructive uses of available water resources. This study was conducted with the specific objective to estimate Landsat-based actual evapotranspiration (ETa) using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model across the state of South Dakota (SD), USA for the 1986–2018 (33-year) period. Validated ETa estimations (r² = 0.91, PBIAS = −4%, and %RMSE = 11.8%) were further used to understand the crop water-use characteristics and existing historic mono-directional (increasing/decreasing) trends over the eastern (ESD) and western (WSD) regions of SD. The crop water-use characteristics indicated that the annual cropland water uses across the ESD and WSD were more or less met by the precipitation amounts in the area. The ample water supply and distribution have led to high rainfed and low percentage of irrigated cropland (~2.5%) in the state. The WSD faced greater crop-water use reductions than the ESD during drought periods. The landscape ETa responses across the state were found to be more sensitive than precipitation for the drought impact assessments. The Mann Kendall trend analysis revealed the absence of a significant trend (p > 0.05) in annual ETa at a regional scale due to the varying weather conditions in the state. However, about 12% and 9% cropland areas in the ESD and WSD, respectively, revealed a significant mono-directional trend at pixel scale ETa. Most of the pixels under significant trend showed an increasing trend that can be explained by the shift in agricultural practices, increased irrigated cropland area, higher productions, moisture regime shifts, and decreased risk of farming in the dry areas. The decreasing trend pixels were clustered in mid-eastern SD and could be the result of dynamic conversion of wetlands to croplands and decreased irrigation practices in the region. This study also demonstrates the tremendous potential and robustness of the SSEBop model, Landsat imagery, and remote sensing-based ETa modelling approaches in estimating consistent spatially distributed evapotranspiration.     

Optimizing environmental flow and macrophyte management for restoring a large eutrophic lake-marsh system

With increasing environmental degradation from eutrophication, management strategies associated with eutrophic water restoration initiatives are necessary and have garnered wide interest. Macrophytes contribute to water quality improvement in lake-marsh systems through nutrient uptake, while causing considerable water loss through transpiration. In reverse, hydrological variations affect macrophyte growth status and thus phytoremediation performance. The interactions between hydrological and ecological processes in lake-marsh systems are complex, but environmental flow management strategies accounting for these interactions have been rarely proposed. Accordingly, this study combines environmental flow and macrophyte management in the restoration of a large eutrophic lake-marsh system, accounting for interactions between hydrological and nutrient removal processes. We consider both nutrient uptake and transpiration-driven water loss of macrophytes as well as the impacts of hydrological conditions on macrophyte growth status and sediment biological denitrification. Regulating upstream dam operation is an effective measure for environmental flow management. Thus, we develop an optimization model to guide upstream water release while simultaneously regulating macrophyte area in a lake-marsh system, aiming to minimize the ratio of environmental flow demand to reservoir water availability and maintain satisfactory water quality in the system throughout the year. A genetic algorithm is adopted for solving the optimization model. By applying the method in a typical lake-marsh system (Baiyangdian) in China as a case, we introduce a new macrophyte management regime (for area cover and harvesting regimes) and an optimal environmental flow management schedule. Results show that appropriate monthly fluctuations in wetland water level are beneficial to phytoremediation performance, and harvesting macrophytes in stages is effective in reducing transpiration-driven water loss without inordinately damaging nutrient uptake by macrophytes. This study offers a useful tool for lake-marsh system restoration management and highlights the significance of regulating hydrological processes in water quality restoration.     

Lateral and subsurface flows impact arctic coastal plain lake water budgets

Arctic thaw lakes are an important source of water for aquatic ecosystems, wildlife, and humans. Many recent studies have observed changes in Arctic surface waters related to climate warming and permafrost thaw; however, explaining the trends and predicting future responses to warming is difficult without a stronger fundamental understanding of Arctic lake water budgets. By measuring and simulating surface and subsurface hydrologic fluxes, this work quantified the water budgets of three lakes with varying levels of seasonal drainage, and tested the hypothesis that lateral and subsurface flows are a major component of the post‐snowmelt water budgets. A water budget focused only on post‐snowmelt surface water fluxes (stream discharge, precipitation, and evaporation) could not close the budget for two of three lakes, even when uncertainty in input parameters was rigorously considered using a Monte Carlo approach. The water budgets indicated large, positive residuals, consistent with up to 70% of mid‐summer inflows entering lakes from lateral fluxes. Lateral inflows and outflows were simulated based on three processes; supra‐permafrost subsurface inflows from basin‐edge polygonal ground, and exchange between seasonally drained lakes and their drained margins through runoff and evapotranspiration. Measurements and simulations indicate that rapid subsurface flow through highly conductive flowpaths in the polygonal ground can explain the majority of the inflow. Drained lakes were hydrologically connected to marshy areas on the lake margins, receiving water from runoff following precipitation and losing up to 38% of lake efflux to drained margin evapotranspiration. Lateral fluxes can be a major part of Arctic thaw lake water budgets and a major control on summertime lake water levels. Incorporating these dynamics into models will improve our ability to predict lake volume changes, solute fluxes, and habitat availability in the changing Arctic. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Variations of crop coefficient and its influencing factors in an arid advective cropland of northwest China

Understanding the variation and magnitude of crop coefficient (K_c) is important for accurate determination of crop evapotranspiration and water use. In this study, we calculated K_c in an irrigated maize field with ground mulching by eddy covariance evapotranspiration measurements during the whole growing periods in 2009 and 2010 in an arid region of northwest China. A semi‐empirical practical approach for estimating K_c was proposed by introducing the dynamic fraction of canopy cover and incorporating the effect of leaf senescence as a function of days after sowing. The contribution of arid advection of sensible heat resulting from irrigation to K_c and the response of K_c to canopy conductance (G_c) were investigated. The averaged values of daily K_c were lower than typical values obtained previously without mulching due to decreasing effect of mulching on K_c, with 0.82 and 0.80 for the 2 years, respectively. The maximum average K_c occurred at the heading stage, with 1.21 and 1.04 for the 2 years, respectively. The difference of K_c was attributed to the difference of leaf area index. The semi‐empirical practical approach could well estimate the variations of K_c, thus could be a robust and useful tool for the practical users and water managers. The contributions to daily K_c from the arid advection were 4.4–28.0% of the measured K_c. The G_c had stronger control on daily K_c at the early and later stages than at the middle stage. When G_c, leaf area index and relative soil extractable water were lower than the respective threshold values of 20 mm s^?1, 3.0 m² m^?2 and 0.5, the daily K_c increased significantly with the increase of the three factors, and almost remained constant when the three factors were beyond the threshold values. These results are helpful for quantifying contributions of individual factors to K_c, and subsequently improving water management practices according to K_c. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

黑河上中游潜在蒸散发模拟及变化特征分析

基于多源遥感数据产品,利用Shuttleworth-Wallace(S-W)模型估算了黑河上中游流域2000—2010年潜在蒸散发(potential evapotranspiration,ET_P),并考虑不同土地覆被类型,分析了ET_P的时空变化特征及影响要素,分别利用ET_P和ET₀驱动水文模型,比较径流模拟精度.结果表明:① 基于高精度遥感数据,S-W模型可模拟区域ET_P.黑河上中游流域,夏季ET_P对年值的贡献最大,各土地覆被类型的ET_P年内变化趋势一致.总体而言,植被条件越好,ET_P越小;② 在研究区内,相对湿度对ET_P变化的影响最大,叶面积指数(LAI)对ET_P变化的影响与辐射相近.植被越稀疏,ET_P对气象要素及LAI的敏感性越强;③ 与ET₀相比,ET_P能够更好地描述陆面蒸散发能力,相同条件下使用ET_P驱动水文模型模拟精度更高.     

半干旱夏季放牧草地能量收支和地表蒸散量变化特征

以半干旱区域典型夏季放牧草地为研究对象,采用涡动相关法,获取了2012年5月至2013年5月水汽和能量通量观测数据,分析夏季近地层能量收支特征、地表蒸散量变化及其气象控制因子。观测结果显示:生长季有效能量的分配以潜热通量为主,非生长季则以感热通量为主;地表蒸散日总量最大值为3.0mm,日蒸散量大小主要取决于土壤温度、气温和净辐射;降雨量的季节分布是地表蒸散量季节变化的一个重要的影响因子。     

The Limiting Effect of Deep Soil Water on Evapotranspiration of a Subtropical Coniferous Plantation Subjected to Seasonal Drought简

Seasonal drought is a common occurrence in humid climates.The year 2003 was the driest year during the period 1985-2011 in southeastern China.The objective of this study was to elucidate the impact of the exceptional drought in 2003,compared with eddy flux measurements during 2004-11,on the dynamics of evapotranspiration （ET） and related factors,as well as their underlying mechanisms,in a subtropical coniferous plantation in southeastern China.It was found that daily ET decreased from 5.34 to 1.84 mm during the intensive drought period and recovered to 4.80 mm during the subsquent recovering drought period.Path analysis indicated that ET was mainly determined by canopy conductance and deep soil water content （50 cm） during the intensive drought and recovering drought periods,respectively.The canopy conductance offset the positive effect of air vapor pressure deficit on ET when suffering drought stress,while the canopy conductance enhanced the positive effect of air temperature on ET during the late growing season.Because the fine roots of this plantation are mainly distributed in shallow soil,and the soil water in the upper 40 cm did not satisfy the demand for ET,stomatal closure and defoliation were evident as physiological responses to drought stress.     

江苏省近50a气候干湿特征研究

根据江苏省1960—2009年54个气象台站常规气象观测资料,利用Penman-Monteith公式计算了全省各地区50 a的逐日潜在蒸散量,结合逐日降水量,推算出了相对湿润度指数值,并采用国家标准《气象干旱等级》(GB/T20481-2006)中的相对湿润度分级指标对全省干湿状况进行了评估,分析其时空变化特征。研究表明:1)就全年而言,江苏省半干旱区与湿润区各占50%左右的面积,其中淮北、江淮北部、苏北沿海的北部为半干旱区,江淮南部、苏北沿海的南部、沿江、苏南地区为湿润区;2)降水量和潜在蒸散量是影响相对湿润度指数的两个关键因子,降水量的变化对相对湿润度的时空分布起着主导作用,潜在蒸散量起着辅助作用。3)江苏省1 a中冬季的南北气候干湿反差最大、夏季最小,湿润区范围夏季最大、秋季最小,半干旱区范围秋季最大、夏季没有,干旱区范围春季最大、夏季和秋季没有。夏季气候最湿润、春季气候最干燥。4)淮北和苏北沿海地区的相对湿润度指数年变化呈"单峰型",江淮、沿江和苏南地区的年变化呈"双峰型",苏北沿海地区相对湿润度年内变化最大,沿江地区最小。