›› 2011, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (3): 463-470.

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Progresses in Evapotranspiration Research and Prospect in Desert Oasis Evapotranspiration Research

ZHAO Wen-zhi, JI Xi-bin, LIU Hu   

  1. Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology in Inland River Basin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • Received:2010-10-11 Revised:2010-12-06 Online:2011-06-25 Published:2011-09-06

Abstract: Evapotranspiration is one of the most important processes in both the hydrologic and ecological cycles in desert oasis system. Because of the dominant role of water resources in oasis ecosystem, observation and simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) flux are fundamental to the effective management of water resources in such environment. Recent progresses in evapotranspiration research are reviewed in this paper from a multi-scale perspective (e.g. leaf, individual, field and landscape). It was highlighted that following aspects should be included and focused on in future research: (a) Application of eddy covariance technique in researching oases with intense heterogeneity and uneven surface; (b) Partition of evapotranspiration between plant transpiration and soil evaporation and the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving and regulating mechanisms of evapotranspiration; (c) Estimation of the instantaneous and cumulative evapotranspiration; (d) observation, simulation, comparison and validation at multiple scales, such as the research plots, irrigated area and oasis.

Key words: desert oasis, individual transpiration, community evapotranspiration, oasis evapotranspiration, multi-scale observation and simulation

CLC Number: 

  • P332.2