Please wait a minute...
Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2019, Vol. 11 Issue (3): 371-384    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-019-0012-y
    
Actual evapotranspiration of subalpine meadows in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China
Yunfei GAO1, Chuanyan ZHAO2,*(), W ASHIQ Muhammad3, Qingtao WANG1, Zhanlei RONG1, Junjie LIU1, Yahua MAO2, Zhaoxia GUO2, Wenbin WANG1
1 State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
3 Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Timmins District, 5520 Hwy 101 E, South Porcupine, ON, P0N1H0, Canada
Download: HTML     PDF(608KB)
Export: BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)      

Abstract  

As a main component in water balance, evapotranspiration (ET) is of great importance for water saving, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. In this study, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) Penman-Monteith model was used to estimate the magnitude and temporal dynamics of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) in 2014 in subalpine meadows of the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China. Meanwhile, actual ET (ETc) was also investigated by the eddy covariance (EC) system. Results indicated that ETc estimated by the EC System was 583 mm, lower than ET0 (923 mm) estimated by the FAO Penman-Monteith model in 2014. Moreover, ET0 began to increase in March and reached the peak value in August and then declined in September, however, ETc began to increase from April and reached the peak value in July, and then declined in August. Total ETc and ET0 values during the growing season (from May to September) were 441 and 666 mm, respectively, which accounted for 75.73% of annual cumulative ETc and 72.34% of annual cumulative ET0, respectively. A crop coefficient (kc) was also estimated for calculating the ETc, and average value of kc during the growing season was 0.81 (ranging from 0.45 to 1.16). Air temperature (Ta), wind speed (u), net radiation (Rn) and soil temperature (Ts) at the depth of 5 cm and aboveground biomass were critical factors for affecting kc, furthermore, a daily empirical kc equation including these main driving factors was developed. Our result demonstrated that the ETc value estimated by the data of kc and ET0 was validated and consistent with the growing season data in 2015 and 2016.

Key words： actual evapotranspiration      reference evapotranspiration      crop coefficient      meteorological factors      biotic factors     
Received: 31 October 2017      Published: 10 June 2019
Corresponding Authors:
Service
E-mail this article
Add to my bookshelf
Add to citation manager
E-mail Alert
RSS
Articles by authors
Yunfei GAO
Chuanyan ZHAO
W ASHIQ Muhammad
Qingtao WANG
Zhanlei RONG
Junjie LIU
Yahua MAO
Zhaoxia GUO
Wenbin WANG
Cite this article:

Yunfei GAO, Chuanyan ZHAO, W ASHIQ Muhammad, Qingtao WANG, Zhanlei RONG, Junjie LIU, Yahua MAO, Zhaoxia GUO, Wenbin WANG. Actual evapotranspiration of subalpine meadows in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China. Journal of Arid Land, 2019, 11(3): 371-384.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-019-0012-y     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2019/V11/I3/371

[1] Alexandris S, Kerkides P.2003. New empirical formula for hourly estimations of reference evapotranspiration. Agricultural Water Management, 60(3): 157-180.
[2] Anderson D E, Verma S B, Rosenbuerg N J.1984. Eddy correlation measurements of CO2, latent heat and sensible heat fluxes over a crop surface. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 29: 263-272.
[3] Allen R G, Smith M, Pereira L S, et al.1994. An update for the calculation of reference evaporation. ICID Bulletin, 43(7): 672-674.
[4] Allen R G, Pereira L S, Raes D, et al.1998. Crop evapotranspiration guidelines for computing crop water requirements-FAO Irrigation and drainage paper 56. FAO, Rome.
[5] Allen R G, Pereira L S, Howell T A, et al.2011. Evapotranspiration information reporting: I. factors governing measurement accuracy. Agricultural Water Management, 98(6): 899-920.
[6] ASCE-EWRI.2005. The ASCE standardized reference evapotranspiration equation. In: Allen R G, Walter I A, Elliot R L, et al. Reported by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Task Committee on Standardization of Reference Evapotranspiration. ASCE, Reston, 0-7844-0805-X, 204.
[7] Aubinet M, Vesala T, Papale D.2012. Eddy Covariance: A Practical Guide to Measurement and Data Analysis. Heidelberg: Springer, 365-376.
[8] Burman D, Pochop L O.1994. Evaporation, evapotranspiration and climatic data. Elsevier Science, 22: 1-5.
[9] Cai J, Liu Y, Lei T, et al.2007. Estimating reference evapotranspiration with the FAO Penman-Monteith equation using daily weather forecast messages. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 145(1-2): 22-35.
[10] De Medeiros G A, Arruda F B, Sakai E.2005. Crop coefficient for irrigated beans derived using three reference evaporation methods. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 135(1-4): 135-143.
[11] Falge E, Baldocchi D, Olson R, et al.2001. Gap filling strategies for defensible annual sums of net ecosystem exchange. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 107(1): 43-69.
[12] Gao Y F, Zhao C Y, Peng S Z, et al.2015. Evapotranspiration simulation of the grassland and sensitivity analysis in Tianlaochi catchment in the upper reaches of Heihe River. Journal of Desert Research, 35(5): 1338-1345. (in Chinese)
[13] Gu J, Smith E A, Merritt J D.1999. Testing energy balance closure with GOES-retrieved net radiation and in situ measured eddy correlation fluxes in BOREAS. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104(D22): 27881-27893.
[14] Gu S Y, Tang X, Cui M, et al.2008. Characterizing evapotranspriration over a meadow ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113: 693-702.
[15] Hou Q, Wang Y S, Yang Z L, et al.2010. Analysis of control factors of crop coefficient in typical steppe. Chinese Journal of Grassland, 32: 58-64. (in Chinese)
[16] Hou Q, Wang Y S, Shi G H, et al.2011. Studies on crop coefficients of typical steppe in Inner Mongolia. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 20(4): 34-41. (in Chinese)
[17] Howell T A, Schneider A D, Jensen M E.1991. History of lysimeter design and use for evapotranspiration measurements. Lysimeters for evapotranspiration & environmental measurements: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Lysimetry. ASCE, Honolulu, HI, 1-9.
[18] Jensen D, Hargreaves G, Temesgen B, et al.1997. Computation of ET0 under nonideal conditions. Journal of Irrigation & Drainage Engineering, 123(5): 394-400.
[19] Jensen M E, Burman R D, Allen R G.1990. Evapotranspiration and Irrigation Water Requirements. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers, 70-72.
[20] Li J, Wang B, Liu X Q, et al.2014. A study of fitting an alpine winter pasture evapotranspiration to a model based on the Penman-Monteith equation. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 13(3): 123-131.
[21] Li S G, Lai C T, Lee G, et al.2005. Evapotranspiration from a wet temperate grassland and its sensitivity to microenvironmental variables. Hydrological Processes, 19(2): 517-532.
[22] Lockwood J G.1999. Is potential evapotranspiration and its relationship with actual evapotranspiration sensitive to elevated atmospheric CO2 level? Climate Change, 41(2): 193-212.
[23] Mahrt L.1998. Flux sampling strategy for aircraft and tower observations. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 15: 416-429.
[24] Massman W J.2000. A simple method for estimating frequency response corrections for eddy covariance systems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 104(3): 185-198.
[25] Mastrorilli M, Katerji N, Rana G, et al.1998. Daily actual evapotranspiration measured with TDR technique in Mediterranean conditions. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 90(1-2): 81-89.
[26] Mauder M, Foken T.2004. Documentation and instruction manual of the eddy covariance software package TK2. Work Report University of Bayreuth, Department of Micrometeorology.
[27] Miao H, Chen S, Chen J, et al.2009. Cultivation and grazing altered evapotranspiration and dynamics in Inner Mongolia steppes. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 149(11): 1810-1819.
[28] Mitchell P J, Veneklass E, Lambers H, et al.2009. Partitioning of evapotranspiration in a semi-arid eucalypt woodland in south-western Australia. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 149(1): 25-37.
[29] Molina H P M, Navarro A M, Osorio M C R, et al.2006. Social and irrigation water management issues in some water user's associations of the Low Segura River Valley (Alicante, Spain). Sustainable Irrigation Management, Technologies and Policies, 96: 205.
[30] Ohmura A.1982. Objective criteria for rejecting data for Bowen ratio flux calculations. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 21(4): 595-598.
[31] Papale D, Reichstein M, Aubinet M, et al.2006. Towards a standardized processing of net ecosystem exchange measured with eddy covariance technique: algorithms and uncertainty estimation. Biogeosciences, 3: 571-583.
[32] Reichstein M, Falge E, Baldocchi D, et al.2005. On the separation of net ecosystem exchange into assimilation and ecosystem respiration: review and improved algorithm. Global Change Biology, 11(9): 1424-1439.
[33] Semalty P D, Dev K, Kumar S, et al.2011. Estimation of forest evapotranspiration over Uttarakhand hills, India. Indian Journal of Physics, 85: 1277-1285.
[34] Simona C, Rita P.2013. Corrected surface energy balance to measure and model the evapotranspiration of irrigated orange orchards in semi-arid Mediterranean conditions. Irrigation Science, 31(5): 1159-1171.
[35] Song K C, Kang E S, Jin B W, et al.2004. An experimental study of grassland evapotranspiration in the mountain watershed of the Heihe River Basin. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, 26(3): 349-356. (in Chinese)
[36] Stannard D I, Blanford J H, Kustas W P, et al, 1994. Interpretation of surface flux measurements in heterogeneous terrain during the Monsoon '90 experiment. Water Resources Research, 30: 1227-1239.
[37] Sumner D M, Jacobes J M.2005. Utility of Penman-Monteith, Priestley-Taylor, reference evapotranspiration, and pan evaporation methods to estimate pasture evapotranspiration. Journal of Hydrology, 308(1-4): 81-104.
[38] Sun X M, Zhu Z L, Wen X F, et al.2006. The impact of averaging period on eddy fluxes observed at ChinaFLUX sites. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 137(3-4): 188-193.
[39] Swinbank W C.1951. The measurement of vertical transfer of heat and water vapour by eddies in the lower atmosphere. Journal of Meteorology, 8(3): 135-145.
[40] Tyagi N K, Sharma D K, Luthra S K.2000. Determination of evapotranspiration and crop coefficients of rice and sunflower with lysimeter. Agricultural Water Manage, 45(1): 41-54.
[41] Veroustraete F, Verstraeten W W, Feyen J.2008. Assessment of evapotranspiration and soil moisture content across different scales of observation. Sensors, 8(1): 70-117.
[42] Wever L A, Flanagan L B, Carlson P J.2002. Seasonal and interannual variation in evapotranspiration, energy balance and surface conductance in a northern temperate grassland. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 112(1): 31-49.
[43] Williams L E, Phene C J, Grimes D W, et al.2003. Water use of mature Thompson seedless grapevines in California. Irrigation Science, 22(1): 11-18.
[44] Williams L E, Ayars J E.2005. Grapevine water use and the crop coefficient are linear functions of the shaded area measured beneath the canopy. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 132(3-4): 201-211.
[45] Wilson K, Goldstein A, Falge E, et al.2002. Energy balance closure at FLUXNET sites. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 113(1-4): 223-243.
[46] Yang F, Zhou G.2011. Characteristics and modeling of evapotranspiration over a temperate desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. Journal of Hydrological, 396(1-2): 139-147.
[47] Yang Y, Chen R, Han C, et al.2013. Measurement and estimation of the summertime daily evapotranspiration on alpine meadow in the Qilian Mountains, northwest China. Environmental Earth Sciences, 68(8): 2253-2261.
[48] Zhang F, Zhou G, Wang Y, et al.2012. Evapotranspiration and crop coefficient for a temperate desert steppe ecosystem using eddy covariance in Inner Mongolia, China. Hydrological Processes, 26(3): 379-386.
[49] Zhao L W, Zhao W Z.2014. Evapotranspiration of an oasis-desert transition zone in the middle stream of Heihe River, Northwest China. Journal of Arid Land, 6(5): 529-539.
[50] Zhou L, Zhou G.2009. Measurement and modelling of evapotranspiration over a reed (Phragmites australis) marsh in Northeast China. Journal of Hydrology, 372(1-4): 41-47.
[1] LI Hongfang, WANG Jian, LIU Hu, MIAO Henglu, LIU Jianfeng. Responses of vegetation yield to precipitation and reference evapotranspiration in a desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2023, 15(4): 477-490.
[2] Faraz GORGIN PAVEH, Hadi RAMEZANI ETEDALI, Brian COLLINS. Evaluation of CRU TS, GPCC, AgMERRA, and AgCFSR meteorological datasets for estimating climate and crop variables: A case study of maize in Qazvin Province, Iran[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2022, 14(12): 1361-1376.
[3] DANG Hongzhong, ZHANG Lizhen, YANG Wenbin, FENG Jinchao, HAN Hui, CHEN Yiben. Severe drought strongly reduces water use and its recovery ability of mature Mongolian Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv.) in a semi-arid sandy environment of northern China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2019, 11(6): 880-891.
[4] Xu BI, Bo LI, Bo NAN, Yao FAN, Qi FU, Xinshi ZHANG. Characteristics of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen under various grassland types along a transect in a mountain-basin system in Xinjiang, China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2018, 10(4): 612-627.
[5] JAVAD Mirzaei, MEHDI Heydari, PREVOSTO Bernard. Effects of vegetation patterns and environmental factors on woody regeneration in semi-arid oak-dominated forests of western Iran[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2017, 9(3): 368-378.
[6] HongZhong DANG, TianShan ZHA, JinSong ZHANG, Wei LI, ShiZeng LIU. Radial profile of sap flow velocity in mature Xinjiang poplar (Populus alba L. var. pyramidalis) in Northwest China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2014, 6(5): 612-627.