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Global synthesis of vegetation control on evapotranspiration partitioning
Author(s) -
Wang Lixin,
Good Stephen P.,
Caylor Kelly K.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl061439
Subject(s) - evapotranspiration , leaf area index , vegetation (pathology) , transpiration , environmental science , water cycle , growing season , global change , atmospheric sciences , climatology , scale (ratio) , geography , climate change , agronomy , ecology , geology , photosynthesis , botany , cartography , medicine , pathology , biology
Evapotranspiration ( ET ) is an important component of the global hydrological cycle. However, to what extent transpiration ratios ( T/ET ) are controlled by vegetation and the mechanisms of global‐scale T/ET variations are not clear. We synthesized all the published papers that measured at least two of the three components ( E , T , and ET ) and leaf area index ( LAI ) simultaneously. Nonlinear relationships between T/ET and LAI were identified for both the overall data set and agricultural or natural data subsets. Large variations in T/ET occurred across all LAI ranges with wider variability at lower LAI . For a given LAI , higher T/ET was observed during later vegetation growing stage within a season. We developed a function relating T/ET to the growing stage relative to the timing of peak LAI . LAI and growing stage collectively explained 43% of the variations in the global T/ET data set, providing a new way to interpret and model global T/ET variability.