Covariation of vegetation and climate constrains present and future T/ET variability
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Paschalis, A
Fatichi, Siomne
Pappas, Christoforos
Or, Dani
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The reliable partitioning of the terrestrial latent heat flux into evaporation (E) and transpiration (T) is important for linking carbon and water cycles and for better understanding ecosystem functioning at local, regional and global scales. Previous research revealed that the transpiration-to-evapotranspiration ratio (T/ET) is well constrained across ecosystems and is nearly independent of vegetation characteristics and climate. Here we investigated the reasons for such a global constancy in present-day T/ET by jointly analysing observations and process-based model simulations. Using this framework, we also quantified how the ratio T/ET could be influenced by changing climate. For present conditions, we found that the various components of land surface evaporation (bare soil evaporation, below canopy soil evaporation, evaporation from interception), and their respective ratios to plant transpiration, depend largely on local climate and equilibrium vegetation properties. The systematic covariation between local vegetation characteristics and climate, resulted in a globally constrained value of T/ET = ~70 ± 9% for undisturbed ecosystems, nearly independent of specific climate and vegetation attributes. Moreover, changes in precipitation amounts and patterns, increasing air temperatures, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and specific leaf area (the ratio of leaf area per leaf mass) was found to affect T/ET in various manners. However, even extreme changes in the aforementioned factors did not significantly modify T/ET.
Date Issued
2018-10-05
Date Acceptance
2018-09-19
Citation
Environmental Research Letters, 2018, 13 (10), pp.1-11
ISSN
1748-9326
Publisher
Institute of Physics (IoP)
Start Page
1
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Research Letters
Volume
13
Issue
10
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this
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the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0
licence.
Any further distribution of
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attribution to the
author(s) and the title of
the work, journal citation
and DOI.
work may be used under
the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0
licence.
Any further distribution of
this work must maintain
attribution to the
author(s) and the title of
the work, journal citation
and DOI.
Identifier
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aae267
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
T/ET
evapotranspiration partitioning
ecohydrology
modelling
climate change
GLOBAL TERRESTRIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION
ELEVATED ATMOSPHERIC CO2
LEAF-AREA
USE EFFICIENCY
WATER FLUXES
FOREST
CARBON
TRANSPIRATION
SURFACE
ECOSYSTEMS
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
104012
Date Publish Online
2018-10-05