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Interannual and seasonal variability in evapotranspiration of alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Alpine meadow ecosystem is the major component of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP); however, the temporal variations in evapotranspiration (ET) and the underlying drivers still remain poorly understood under the intensified warming and wetting climate. This study explored the different responses of ET to driving factors for alpine meadow in northeastern QTP at daily, seasonal, and yearly scales with the measurements of water fluxes using eddy-covariance techniques between 2013 and 2017. Pearson correlation and stepwise regression methods were used to ascertain the environmental controls of ET and clarify the factors causing the differences in ET among the different seasons and years. The results indicated that mean annual ET was 689, 644, 664, 586, and 691 mm in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 respectively, in the studied alpine meadow ecosystem. There was a clear consistent seasonal variation pattern for daily ET and climatic factors of net radiation, air temperature, air relative humidity, wind speed, vapor pressure deficit (VDP), and precipitation. Net radiation had a significant effect on variation of daily ET during all seasons. The findings of the study highlighted that higher variations in ET existed in daily, seasonal, and annual scales, we found VDP exerted significantly positive effects on variations in ET in non-growing seasons and drought year, suggesting that alpine meadow ecosystem is sensitive to VDP and becoming increasing vulnerable to atmospheric drought under warming climate. The soil moisture had positive effects on ET and the effect became stronger after drought. The 2015/2016 El Niño event caused little change in ET due to extreme nocturnal warming. These results provide new insights on the response of alpine meadow ET to climate warming, which may facilitate the modeling of water cycle of alpine meadow ecosystem.

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Data availability

Data of the eddy covariance measurements between 2013 and 2017 were from the HiWATER program (http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn/hiwater).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Hong Zhang

  2. School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Ruiyin Dou

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  1. Hong Zhang
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  2. Ruiyin Dou
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Correspondence to Ruiyin Dou.

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Responsible Editor: Broder J. Merkel

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Zhang, H., Dou, R. Interannual and seasonal variability in evapotranspiration of alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Arab J Geosci 13, 968 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-06022-1

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