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Potential Impacts of Climate Variation on Potato Field Evapotranspiration: Field Experiment and Numerical Simulation of Potato Water Use in an Arid Site
Author(s) -
Hou Lizhu,
Hu Bill X.,
Li Huan,
Wan Li
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2018jd028841
Subject(s) - evapotranspiration , environmental science , growing season , arid , crop coefficient , climate change , semi arid climate , irrigation , transpiration , hydrology (agriculture) , soil water , agronomy , soil science , ecology , geology , photosynthesis , botany , geotechnical engineering , biology
Climate change would significantly affect crop evapotranspiration processes. Many studies have been conducted for various crops. However, there is a lack of sufficient observational evidence on how climate change would influence potato evapotranspiration. In this paper, an experimental potato field in Maowusu Desert, northwest of China, was used to investigate the effect of climate change on potato evapotranspiration. Temporal variations in reference evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) were comprehensively investigated during 1954–2013, which shows that annual temperature and ET 0 had significant increasing trends in the past 60 years. Meanwhile, an experimental crop of potato was grown in Maowusu Desert to investigate water‐soil‐air‐plant‐human nexus in 2016, and a HYDRUS‐1D model for the unsaturated flow in a potato field was calibrated and validated with measured soil water tensions and soil water contents at various depths during the potato growing periods from 8 to 16 August 2016 and from 6 September to 3 October 2016, respectively. The model computed the actual potato evapotranspiration (ET a ) as 183 mm during the whole growing period from 5 June to 3 October 2016. The groundwater contribution to potato water use was calculated to be 320 mm during the growing season in 2016. As the atmospheric temperature increases, the reference crop evapotranspiration increases, the actual potato evapotranspiration increases too. The actual potato evapotranspiration increase with temperature increase will lead to a bigger water resource pressure in this area. The study results provide the basis for managing crop irrigation in the region in the future.