DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Partitioning evapotranspiration based on the concept of underlying water use efficiency

Abstract

Evapotranspiration (ET) is dominated by transpiration (T) in the terrestrial water cycle. However, continuous measurement of transpiration is still difficult, and the effect of vegetation on ET partitioning is unclear. The concept of underlying water use efficiency (uWUE) was used to develop a new method for ET partitioning by assuming that the maximum, or the potential uWUE is related to T while the averaged or apparent uWUE is related to ET. T/ET was thus estimated as the ratio of the apparent over the potential uWUE using half-hourly flux data from 17 AmeriFlux sites. The estimated potential uWUE was shown to be essentially constant for 14 of the 17 sites, and was broadly consistent with the uWUE evaluated at the leaf scale. The annual T/ET was the highest for croplands, i.e., 0.69 for corn and 0.62 for soybean, followed by grasslands (0.60) and evergreen needle leaf forests (0.56), and was the lowest for deciduous broadleaf forests (0.52). The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) was shown to be significantly correlated with T/ET and could explain about 75% of the variation in T/ET among the 71 site-years. The coefficients of determination between EVI and T/ET were 0.84 and 0.82 for corn and soybean, respectively,more » and 0.77 for deciduous broadleaf forests and grasslands, but only 0.37 for evergreen needle leaf forests. This ET partitioning method is sound in principle and simple to apply in practice, and would enhance the value and role of global FLUXNET in estimating T/ET variations and monitoring ecosystem dynamics.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1]
  1. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
  2. Griffith Univ., Nathan, Queensland (Australia)
  3. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
  4. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Qinghai Univ., Xining, Qinghai (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
OSTI Identifier:
1580858
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; 91125018; 2013BAB05B03; 201301081
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Water Resources Research
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 52; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1397
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING; ET partitioning; underlying water use efficiency; vegetation control

Citation Formats

Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Zhang, Yao, Huang, Yuefei, and Wang, Guangqian. Partitioning evapotranspiration based on the concept of underlying water use efficiency. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1002/2015wr017766.
Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Zhang, Yao, Huang, Yuefei, & Wang, Guangqian. Partitioning evapotranspiration based on the concept of underlying water use efficiency. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015wr017766
Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Zhang, Yao, Huang, Yuefei, and Wang, Guangqian. Mon . "Partitioning evapotranspiration based on the concept of underlying water use efficiency". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015wr017766. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1580858.
@article{osti_1580858,
title = {Partitioning evapotranspiration based on the concept of underlying water use efficiency},
author = {Zhou, Sha and Yu, Bofu and Zhang, Yao and Huang, Yuefei and Wang, Guangqian},
abstractNote = {Evapotranspiration (ET) is dominated by transpiration (T) in the terrestrial water cycle. However, continuous measurement of transpiration is still difficult, and the effect of vegetation on ET partitioning is unclear. The concept of underlying water use efficiency (uWUE) was used to develop a new method for ET partitioning by assuming that the maximum, or the potential uWUE is related to T while the averaged or apparent uWUE is related to ET. T/ET was thus estimated as the ratio of the apparent over the potential uWUE using half-hourly flux data from 17 AmeriFlux sites. The estimated potential uWUE was shown to be essentially constant for 14 of the 17 sites, and was broadly consistent with the uWUE evaluated at the leaf scale. The annual T/ET was the highest for croplands, i.e., 0.69 for corn and 0.62 for soybean, followed by grasslands (0.60) and evergreen needle leaf forests (0.56), and was the lowest for deciduous broadleaf forests (0.52). The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) was shown to be significantly correlated with T/ET and could explain about 75% of the variation in T/ET among the 71 site-years. The coefficients of determination between EVI and T/ET were 0.84 and 0.82 for corn and soybean, respectively, and 0.77 for deciduous broadleaf forests and grasslands, but only 0.37 for evergreen needle leaf forests. This ET partitioning method is sound in principle and simple to apply in practice, and would enhance the value and role of global FLUXNET in estimating T/ET variations and monitoring ecosystem dynamics.},
doi = {10.1002/2015wr017766},
journal = {Water Resources Research},
number = 2,
volume = 52,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Mon Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 149 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Temporal and among-site variability of inherent water use efficiency at the ecosystem level: VARIABILITY OF INHERENT WUE
journal, June 2009

  • Beer, C.; Ciais, P.; Reichstein, M.
  • Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 23, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1029/2008GB003233

Terrestrial water fluxes dominated by transpiration
journal, April 2013

  • Jasechko, Scott; Sharp, Zachary D.; Gibson, John J.
  • Nature, Vol. 496, Issue 7445
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature11983

Gross primary production and ecosystem respiration of irrigated maize and irrigated soybean during a growing season
journal, August 2005


Determining vegetation indices from solar and photosynthetically active radiation fluxes
journal, June 2007


Estimating components of forest evapotranspiration: A footprint approach for scaling sap flux measurements
journal, October 2008


Vegetation index-based crop coefficients to estimate evapotranspiration by remote sensing in agricultural and natural ecosystems: VEGETATION INDEX-BASED CROP COEFFICIENTS
journal, December 2011

  • Glenn, Edward P.; Neale, Christopher M. U.; Hunsaker, Doug J.
  • Hydrological Processes, Vol. 25, Issue 26
  • DOI: 10.1002/hyp.8392

Partitioning of Evapotranspiration Using Lysimeter and Micro‐Bowen‐Ratio System
journal, March 1994


The Partitioning of Evapotranspiration into Transpiration, Soil Evaporation, and Canopy Evaporation in a GCM: Impacts on Land–Atmosphere Interaction
journal, August 2007

  • Lawrence, David M.; Thornton, Peter E.; Oleson, Keith W.
  • Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 8, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1175/JHM596.1

An assessment of storage terms in the surface energy balance of maize and soybean
journal, September 2004


Multi-year convergence of biometric and meteorological estimates of forest carbon storage
journal, February 2008


Comparing net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide between an old-growth and mature forest in the upper Midwest, USA
journal, January 2005


Phenology and gross primary production of two dominant savanna woodland ecosystems in Southern Africa
journal, August 2013


Global synthesis of vegetation control on evapotranspiration partitioning: VEGETATION AND ET PARTITIONING
journal, October 2014

  • Wang, Lixin; Good, Stephen P.; Caylor, Kelly K.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014GL061439

Spatiotemporal variations of T/ET (the ratio of transpiration to evapotranspiration) in three forests of Eastern China
journal, May 2015


Actual evapotranspiration estimation for different land use and land cover in urban regions using Landsat 5 data
journal, January 2010

  • Hong, Yang
  • Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Vol. 4, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1117/1.3525566

A comparison of methods for determining forest evapotranspiration and its components: sap-flow, soil water budget, eddy covariance and catchment water balance
journal, January 2001

  • Wilson, Kell B.; Hanson, Paul J.; Mulholland, Patrick J.
  • Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 106, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1016/S0168-1923(00)00199-4

A gentle introduction to quantile regression for ecologists
journal, October 2003


Enhanced Seasonal Exchange of CO2 by Northern Ecosystems Since 1960
journal, August 2013


A review of approaches for evapotranspiration partitioning
journal, January 2014


The effect of vapor pressure deficit on water use efficiency at the subdaily time scale: Underlying water use efficiency
journal, July 2014

  • Zhou, Sha; Yu, Bofu; Huang, Yuefei
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014GL060741

Bayesian quantile regression
journal, October 2001


Widespread decline of Congo rainforest greenness in the past decade
journal, April 2014

  • Zhou, Liming; Tian, Yuhong; Myneni, Ranga B.
  • Nature, Vol. 509, Issue 7498
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature13265

Partitioning evapotranspiration across gradients of woody plant cover: Assessment of a stable isotope technique: ISOTOPIC EVAPOTRANSPIRATION PARTITIONING
journal, May 2010

  • Wang, Lixin; Caylor, Kelly K.; Villegas, Juan Camilo
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1029/2010GL043228

A simple method to estimate actual evapotranspiration from a combination of net radiation, vegetation index, and temperature
journal, January 2007

  • Wang, Kaicun; Wang, Pucai; Li, Zhanqing
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue D15
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006JD008351

Predicting riparian evapotranspiration from MODIS vegetation indices and meteorological data
journal, January 2005

  • Nagler, Pamela L.; Cleverly, James; Glenn, Edward
  • Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 94, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2004.08.009

A Synthesis of Forest Evaporation Fluxes – from Days to Years – as Measured with Eddy Covariance
book, January 2011


An eddy covariance mesonet to measure the effect of forest age on land?atmosphere exchange
journal, November 2006


13C discrimination during CO2 assimilation by the terrestrial biosphere
journal, January 1994


Variability of soil physical and hydraulic properties at the Mojave Global Change Facility, Nevada: Implications for water budget and evapotranspiration
journal, August 2009


Influences of biomass heat and biochemical energy storages on the land surface fluxes and radiative temperature
journal, January 2007

  • Gu, Lianhong; Meyers, Tilden; Pallardy, Stephen G.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue D2
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006JD007425

Determination and validation of corn crop transpirationby sap flow measurement under field conditions
journal, December 2000

  • Bethenod, O.; Katerji, N.; Goujet, R.
  • Theoretical and Applied Climatology, Vol. 67, Issue 3-4
  • DOI: 10.1007/s007040070004

Relations between evaporation coefficients and vegetation indices studied by model simulations
journal, October 1994


Quantum Yields for CO 2 Uptake in C 3 and C 4 Plants : Dependence on Temperature, CO
journal, January 1977

  • Ehleringer, James; Björkman, Olle
  • Plant Physiology, Vol. 59, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1104/pp.59.1.86

Factoring in canopy cover heterogeneity on evapotranspiration partitioning: Beyond big-leaf surface homogeneity assumptions
journal, May 2014

  • Villegas, J. C.; Espeleta, J. E.; Morrison, C. T.
  • Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Vol. 69, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.2489/jswc.69.3.78A

Sensitivity of vegetation indices and gross primary production of tallgrass prairie to severe drought
journal, September 2014


Seasonal variation in carbon dioxide exchange over a Mediterranean annual grassland in California
journal, May 2004


Carbon budget of mature no-till ecosystem in North Central Region of the United States
journal, May 2005

  • Hollinger, Steven E.; Bernacchi, Carl J.; Meyers, Tilden P.
  • Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 130, Issue 1-2
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2005.01.005

A Three-Dimensional Backward Lagrangian Footprint Model For A Wide Range Of Boundary-Layer Stratifications
journal, May 2002

  • Kljun, N.; Rotach, M. W.; Schmid, H. P.
  • Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Vol. 103, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1023/A:1014556300021

Vegetation Index Methods for Estimating Evapotranspiration by Remote Sensing
journal, October 2010

  • Glenn, Edward P.; Nagler, Pamela L.; Huete, Alfredo R.
  • Surveys in Geophysics, Vol. 31, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10712-010-9102-2

δ 2 H isotopic flux partitioning of evapotranspiration over a grass field following a water pulse and subsequent dry down
journal, February 2014

  • Good, Stephen P.; Soderberg, Keir; Guan, Kaiyu
  • Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/2013WR014333

Mean annual GPP of Europe derived from its water balance: MEAN EUROPEAN GPP
journal, March 2007

  • Beer, C.; Reichstein, M.; Ciais, P.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006GL029006

The effect of warming on grassland evapotranspiration partitioning using laser-based isotope monitoring techniques
journal, June 2013


Partitioning carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes using correlation analysis
journal, January 2010


Response of carbon fluxes to drought in a coastal plain loblolly pine forest: DROUGHT AND CARBON FLUXES IN A COASTAL PLAIN FOREST
journal, January 2010


Surface energy and carbon dioxide fluxes above different vegetation types within ABLE
journal, February 2006


On the separation of net ecosystem exchange into assimilation and ecosystem respiration: review and improved algorithm
journal, September 2005


Daily underlying water use efficiency for AmeriFlux sites: DAILY UNDERLYING WUE
journal, May 2015

  • Zhou, Sha; Yu, Bofu; Huang, Yuefei
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 120, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015JG002947

Regulation of Photosynthesis in C3 and C4 Plants: A Molecular Approach.
journal, July 1995


Modelling Stomatal Responses to Environment in Macadamia integrifolia
journal, January 1991


Temporal Changes in c and n Stocks of Restored Prairie: Implications for c Sequestration Strategies
journal, September 2008

  • Matamala, R.; Jastrow, J. D.; Miller, R. M.
  • Ecological Applications, Vol. 18, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1890/07-1609.1

Probabilistic wind power forecasts using local quantile regression
journal, January 2004

  • Bremnes, John Bjørnar
  • Wind Energy, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1002/we.107

Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS
journal, March 2003


Factors controlling CO 2 exchange on timescales from hourly to decadal at Harvard Forest
journal, January 2007

  • Urbanski, S.; Barford, C.; Wofsy, S.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue G2
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006JG000293

Sharing knowledge via software components: Models on reference evapotranspiration
journal, February 2006

  • Donatelli, Marcello; Bellocchi, Gianni; Carlini, Laura
  • European Journal of Agronomy, Vol. 24, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.eja.2005.07.005

Transpiration in the global water cycle
journal, June 2014


Optical–Biophysical Relationships of Vegetation Spectra without Background Contamination
journal, December 2000


Works referencing / citing this record:

A review of remote sensing based actual evapotranspiration estimation: A review of remote sensing evapotranspiration
journal, July 2016

  • Zhang, Ke; Kimball, John S.; Running, Steven W.
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, Vol. 3, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1168

Partitioning Evapotranspiration Over the Continental United States Using Weather Station Data
journal, September 2018

  • Rigden, Angela J.; Salvucci, Guido D.; Entekhabi, Dara
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018gl079121

Seasonality of the Transpiration Fraction and Its Controls Across Typical Ecosystems Within the Heihe River Basin
journal, February 2019

  • Tong, Yaqin; Wang, Pei; Li, Xiao-Yan
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 124, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018jd029680

Partitioning Eddy Covariance Water Flux Components Using Physiological and Micrometeorological Approaches
journal, October 2018

  • Perez-Priego, Oscar; Katul, Gabriel; Reichstein, Markus
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 123, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018jg004637

Covariation of vegetation and climate constrains present and future T/ET variability
journal, October 2018

  • Paschalis, Athanasios; Fatichi, Simone; Pappas, Christoforos
  • Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aae267

Coupling between the terrestrial carbon and water cycles—a review
journal, July 2019

  • Gentine, Pierre; Green, Julia K.; Guérin, Marceau
  • Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab22d6

Water‐use efficiency in a semi‐arid woodland with high rainfall variability
journal, November 2019

  • Tarin, Tonantzin; Nolan, Rachael H.; Medlyn, Belinda E.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 26, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14866

How do leaf and ecosystem measures of water-use efficiency compare?
journal, June 2017

  • Medlyn, Belinda E.; De Kauwe, Martin G.; Lin, Yan-Shih
  • New Phytologist, Vol. 216, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1111/nph.14626

Attribution of Flux Partitioning Variations between Land Surface Models over the Continental U.S.
journal, May 2018

  • Kumar, Sujay; Holmes, Thomas; Mocko, David
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 10, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs10050751

Exploring the Potential of Satellite Solar-Induced Fluorescence to Constrain Global Transpiration Estimates
journal, February 2019

  • Pagán, Brianna; Maes, Wouter; Gentine, Pierre
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 11, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs11040413

Water-stress-induced breakdown of carbon–water relations: indicators from diurnal FLUXNET patterns
journal, January 2018

  • Nelson, Jacob A.; Carvalhais, Nuno; Migliavacca, Mirco
  • Biogeosciences, Vol. 15, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-2433-2018

Synthetic ozone deposition and stomatal uptake at flux tower sites
journal, January 2018

  • Ducker, Jason A.; Holmes, Christopher D.; Keenan, Trevor F.
  • Biogeosciences, Vol. 15, Issue 17
  • DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-5395-2018

Reviews and syntheses: Turning the challenges of partitioning ecosystem evaporation and transpiration into opportunities
journal, January 2019

  • Stoy, Paul C.; El-Madany, Tarek S.; Fisher, Joshua B.
  • Biogeosciences, Vol. 16, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.5194/bg-16-3747-2019

Coupling between the terrestrial carbon and water cycles-a review
text, January 2019


Covariation of vegetation and climate constrains present and future T/ET variability
text, January 2018