Advances in Earth Science ›› 2021, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (8): 836-848. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2021.079

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Comparison of Variations in Land Surface Evapotranspiration Between Typical Alpine Steppe and Wetland Ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau over the Last Four Decades

Ning Ma 1, 2( )   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes,Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China
    2.State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Lanzhou 730000,China
  • Received:2021-03-29 Revised:2021-05-26 Online:2021-08-10 Published:2021-09-22
  • About author:MA Ning (1989-), male, Mengcheng County, Anhui Province, Assistant professor. Research areas include observation and modeling of terrestrial evapotranspiration. E-mail: ma.n2007@aliyun.com
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China "Impact of vegetation changes on the evapotranspiration over the typical alpine steppe and meadow ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau"(41801047);The Open Research Program of State Key Laboratory of State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science "Spatio-temporal variations in land surface evapotranspiration across Tibetan Plateau under the background of warming and wetting"(SKLCS-OP-2020-11)

Ning Ma. Comparison of Variations in Land Surface Evapotranspiration Between Typical Alpine Steppe and Wetland Ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau over the Last Four Decades[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2021, 36(8): 836-848.

Land surface evapotranspiration (ETa) is a key element that determines the terrestrial water storage of the Asian Water Tower. However, the long-term variations in ETa and its response to the ongoing climate change remain largely unknown. Here, this study used both in-situ observation and complementary relationship-based (CR) modeling technique to investigate the changes in ETa from typical alpine steppe and alpine wetland on the Tibetan Plateau during the last four decades. The results showed that the CR model was able to accurately simulate ETa once its parameters could be locally calibrated, suggesting that this model has a great potential for understanding the long-term variations in ETa over such a sparsely-instrumented but hydrologically-important region. During 1973-2013, both alpine steppe and alpine wetland showed increasing trends in ETa, but such an increase was only significant for the alpine wetland in which ETa increased with a rate of 2.0 mm/a. Further correlation analysis suggested that the changes in ETa over these two ecosystems was primarily controlled by changes in the vapor pressure over the last 40 years. The ETa consistently increased in both alpine ecosystems before the late 1990s, but their changes in ETa became contrasting after the late 1990s because ETa decreased significantly over the alpine steppe but continued to increase over the alpine wetland until the mid-2000s. The main reason for the increase in ETa at the latter ecosystem was the increase in vapor pressure and sunshine hour during this period. Moreover, the soil moisture of the wetland could be replenished from the glacier melting, which could provide enough water for surface evapotranspiration process. This study shows that while the geographical distance is short, the response of ETa to climate change in these two alpine ecosystems might differ obviously because of the different hydrological cycle regimes.

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