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Evolution of potential evapotranspiration in the northern Loess Plateau of China: recent trends and climatic drivers
Author(s) -
Ning Tingting,
Li Zhi,
Liu Wenzhao,
Han Xiaoyang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/joc.4611
Subject(s) - evapotranspiration , potential evaporation , transect , environmental science , climatology , pan evaporation , latitude , loess plateau , physical geography , wind speed , climate change , atmospheric sciences , geography , geology , ecology , meteorology , soil science , oceanography , biology , geodesy
ABSTRACT Potential evapotranspiration represents the maximum evaporative capacity for a region, which underscores the importance of analysing its changes and attribution to provide information for water resource management. This study focused on the northern Loess Plateau of China, investigated the changes in potential evapotranspiration ( ET 0 ) using data from 34 stations during 1960–2013 and conducted its temporal and spatial attribution through the differentiation equation method. The results show that the annual mean ET 0 is 1004.9 mm with a decreasing trend at the rate of 0.33 mm year −1 . The lowest values were found in the northeast and southwest regions, while the greatest ET 0 was in the northwest region. An ‘evaporation paradox’ existed as a whole, but not obviously. The ET 0 was most sensitive to actual vapour pressure ( e a ), followed by solar radiation ( R s ), mean temperature ( T mean ) and wind speed ( U 2 ). The inter‐annual variation in the sensitivity of ET 0 in relation to climatic factors showed that ET 0 became more sensitive to U 2 and T mean but less sensitive to R s and e a from 1960 to 2013. Temporally, the increasing T mean resulted in the increase of ET 0 ; while its effect was weakened by the other three factors, especially by decreasing U 2 . The contributions of climatic factors to the ET 0 spatial variation trends were also analysed along two transects, but the dominant factors were different for each transect. Furthermore, the possible impacts of human activities on ET 0 changes were also discussed.