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Observed timescales of evapotranspiration response to soil moisture
Author(s) -
Teuling A. J.,
Seneviratne S. I.,
Williams C.,
Troch P. A.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2006gl028178
Subject(s) - evapotranspiration , environmental science , vegetation (pathology) , water content , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , climatology , range (aeronautics) , climate change , magnitude (astronomy) , moisture , hydrology (agriculture) , soil science , geology , meteorology , ecology , geography , medicine , oceanography , materials science , physics , geotechnical engineering , pathology , astronomy , composite material , biology
The sensitivity of evapotranspiration (ET) to soil moisture storage plays an important role in the land‐atmosphere system. Yet little is known about its magnitude, or its dependence on vegetation, soil, and/or climate characteristics. Here we relate the sensitivity to the timescale of ET decay in absence of rainfall, and show that it can thus be derived from time series of ET alone. We analyze ET observations from 15 vegetated sites covering a range of climates conditions, yielding timescales of 15–35 days. Longer timescales (weaker ET sensitivity) are found in regions with seasonal droughts, or at sites with woody vegetation. We compare observed values with output of different land surface models (LSMs) from the Second Global Soil Wetness Project, revealing large inter‐model differences and significant differences with observations. Our methodology can lead to improved representation of soil moisture effects on ET in LSMs.