The land-atmosphere water flux in the tropics

Fisher, JB; Malhi, Y; Bonal, D; Da Rocha, HR; De Araújo, AC; Gamo, M; Goulden, ML; Rano, TH; Huete, AR; Kondo, H; Kumagai, T; Loescher, HW; Miller, S; Nobre, AD; Nouvellon, Y; Oberbauer, SF; Panuthai, S; Roupsard, O; Saleska, S; Tanaka, K; Tanaka, N; Tu, KP; Von Randow, C

The land-atmosphere water flux in the tropics

Fisher, JB Malhi, Y Bonal, D Da Rocha, HR De Araújo, AC Gamo, M Goulden, ML Rano, TH Huete, AR

Kondo, H Kumagai, T Loescher, HW Miller, S Nobre, AD Nouvellon, Y Oberbauer, SF Panuthai, S Roupsard, O Saleska, S Tanaka, K Tanaka, N Tu, KP Von Randow, C

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Global Change Biology, 2009, 15 (11), pp. 2694 - 2714
Issue Date:: 2009-11-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Fisher, JB	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Malhi, Y	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Bonal, D	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Da Rocha, HR	en_US
dc.contributor.author	De Araújo, AC	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Gamo, M	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Goulden, ML	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Rano, TH	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Huete, AR https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2809-2376	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Kondo, H	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Kumagai, T	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Loescher, HW	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Miller, S	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Nobre, AD	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Nouvellon, Y	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Oberbauer, SF	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Panuthai, S	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Roupsard, O	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Saleska, S	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Tanaka, K	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Tanaka, N	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Tu, KP	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Von Randow, C	en_US
dc.date.issued	2009-11-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Global Change Biology, 2009, 15 (11), pp. 2694 - 2714	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1354-1013	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/14892
dc.description.abstract	Tropical vegetation is a major source of global land surface evapotranspiration, and can thus play a major role in global hydrological cycles and global atmospheric circulation. Accurate prediction of tropical evapotranspiration is critical to our understanding of these processes under changing climate. We examined the controls on evapotranspiration in tropical vegetation at 21 pan-tropical eddy covariance sites, conducted a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of 13 evapotranspiration models at these sites, and assessed the ability to scale up model estimates of evapotranspiration for the test region of Amazonia. Net radiation was the strongest determinant of evapotranspiration (mean evaporative fraction was 0.72) and explained 87% of the variance in monthly evapotranspiration across the sites. Vapor pressure deficit was the strongest residual predictor (14%), followed by normalized difference vegetation index (9%), precipitation (6%) and wind speed (4%). The radiation-based evapotranspiration models performed best overall for three reasons: (1) the vegetation was largely decoupled from atmospheric turbulent transfer (calculated from Ω decoupling factor), especially at the wetter sites; (2) the resistance-based models were hindered by difficulty in consistently characterizing canopy (and stomatal) resistance in the highly diverse vegetation; (3) the temperature-based models inadequately captured the variability in tropical evapotranspiration. We evaluated the potential to predict regional evapotranspiration for one test region: Amazonia. We estimated an Amazonia-wide evapotranspiration of 1370mmyr-1, but this value is dependent on assumptions about energy balance closure for the tropical eddy covariance sites; a lower value (1096mmyr-1) is considered in discussion on the use of flux data to validate and interpolate models. © 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Global Change Biology	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01813.x	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Ecology	en_US
dc.title	The land-atmosphere water flux in the tropics	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	11	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	15	en_US
utslib.for	0502 Environmental Science and Management	en_US
utslib.for	0602 Ecology	en_US
utslib.for	05 Environmental Sciences	en_US
utslib.for	06 Biological Sciences	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science/School of Life Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CAMGIS - Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial lnformation Systems
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.issue	11	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	15	en_US

Abstract:

Tropical vegetation is a major source of global land surface evapotranspiration, and can thus play a major role in global hydrological cycles and global atmospheric circulation. Accurate prediction of tropical evapotranspiration is critical to our understanding of these processes under changing climate. We examined the controls on evapotranspiration in tropical vegetation at 21 pan-tropical eddy covariance sites, conducted a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of 13 evapotranspiration models at these sites, and assessed the ability to scale up model estimates of evapotranspiration for the test region of Amazonia. Net radiation was the strongest determinant of evapotranspiration (mean evaporative fraction was 0.72) and explained 87% of the variance in monthly evapotranspiration across the sites. Vapor pressure deficit was the strongest residual predictor (14%), followed by normalized difference vegetation index (9%), precipitation (6%) and wind speed (4%). The radiation-based evapotranspiration models performed best overall for three reasons: (1) the vegetation was largely decoupled from atmospheric turbulent transfer (calculated from Ω decoupling factor), especially at the wetter sites; (2) the resistance-based models were hindered by difficulty in consistently characterizing canopy (and stomatal) resistance in the highly diverse vegetation; (3) the temperature-based models inadequately captured the variability in tropical evapotranspiration. We evaluated the potential to predict regional evapotranspiration for one test region: Amazonia. We estimated an Amazonia-wide evapotranspiration of 1370mmyr-1, but this value is dependent on assumptions about energy balance closure for the tropical eddy covariance sites; a lower value (1096mmyr-1) is considered in discussion on the use of flux data to validate and interpolate models. © 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/14892