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Title: Global variation of transpiration and soil evaporation and the role of their major climate drivers

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027025· OSTI ID:1474060
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Canberra, ACT (Australia). Land and Water
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research
  3. Sichuan Univ., Chengdu (China). State Key Lab. of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering
  4. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Canberra, ACT (Australia). Marine and Atmospheric Research

Abstract Although global variation in actual evapotranspiration has been widely investigated, it remains unclear how its two major components, transpiration and soil evaporation, are driven by climate drivers across global land surface. This paper uses a well‐validated, process‐based model that estimates transpiration and soil evaporation, and for the first time investigates and quantifies how the main global drivers, associated to vegetation process and the water and energy cycle, drive the spatiotemporal variation of the two components. The results show that transpiration and soil evaporation dominate the variance of actual evapotranspiration in wet and dry regions, respectively. Dry southern hemisphere from 13°S to 27°S is highlighted since it contributes to 21% global soil evaporation variance, with only 11% global land area. In wet regions, particularly in the humid tropics, there are strong correlations between transpiration, actual evapotranspiration, and potential evapotranspiration, with precipitation playing a relatively minor role, and available radiative energy is the major contributor to the interannual variability in transpiration and actual evapotranspiration in Amazonia. Conversely in dry regions, there are strong correlations between soil evaporation, actual evapotranspiration, and precipitation. Our findings highlight that ecohydrological links are highly related to climate regimes, and the small region such as Australia has important contribution to interannual variation in global soil evaporation and evapotranspiration, and anthropogenic activities strongly influence the variances in irrigation regions.

Research Organization:
Oregon State Univ, Corvallis, Oregon (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-04ER63917; FG02-04ER63911
OSTI ID:
1474060
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1402247
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 122, Issue 13; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 65 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (8)

Attribution of Flux Partitioning Variations between Land Surface Models over the Continental U.S. journal May 2018
The CR of Evaporation: A Calibration‐Free Diagnostic and Benchmarking Tool for Large‐Scale Terrestrial Evapotranspiration Modeling journal August 2019
Sensitivity of Evapotranspiration Components in Remote Sensing-Based Models journal October 2018
Use of satellite leaf area index estimating evapotranspiration and gross assimilation for Australian ecosystems: Coupled estimates of ET and GPP journal April 2018
Seed predation increases from the Arctic to the Equator and from high to low elevations journal February 2019
Contribution of understory evaporation in a tropical wet forest during the dry season journal January 2020
Estimation of Soil Evaporation and Vegetation Transpiration Using Two Trapezoidal Models From MODIS Data journal July 2019
Variation of Aridity Index and the Role of Climate Variables in the Southwest China journal September 2017