Arid Zone Research ›› 2021, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (6): 1614-1623.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2021.06.13

• Weather and Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evapotranspiration changes and its attribution in semi-arid regions of Inner Mongolia

ZHAO Xiaohan1,2(),ZHANG Fangmin1,2(),HAN Dianchen1,2,WENG Shengheng1,2   

  1. 1. Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu, China
    2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu, China
  • Received:2021-02-07 Revised:2021-04-21 Online:2021-11-15 Published:2021-11-29
  • Contact: Fangmin ZHANG E-mail:zhxhmw@163.com;fmin.zhang@nuist.edu.cn

Abstract:

Understanding the variation characteristics of evapotranspiration (ET) and its influencing factors are essential for regional water resources. Based on the boreal ecosystem productivity simulator model, remote sensing data, and meteorological data, the characteristics of ET change in semiarid regions of Inner Mongolia from 1981 to 2018 were simulated and its driving factors were quantified. ET of semiarid regions in Inner Mongolia showed a fluctuating upward trend with a rate at 1.75 mm·a-1 (P<0.05) from 1981 to 2018. Further, there were concurrent differences in ET with a significant mutation happened in 1997. ET increased at a rate of 1.70 mm·a-1 in 1998-2018 (P<0.05). Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and LAI were the main driving factors of ET changes after 1997, which significantly increased at a rate of 0.002 hPa and 0.01 per year (P<0.05). The adverse effects of other factors were suppressed in positive influence of VPD and LAI, which led to a significant increase in ET. VPD was the main driving factor of ET change, which dominated regional ET change in 93.56% of the area and explained 24.83%-90.46% of ET change, where the coefficient of determination for path analysis was 0.95. VPD was the primary factor driving the five land use types of cultivated land, forestland, grassland, urban land, and bare land with average contribution rates of more than 45%.

Key words: evapotranspiration, vapor pressure deficit, BEPS model, leaf area index, Inner Mongoia