Impacts of Deforestation and Climate Variability on Terrestrial Evapotranspiration in Subarctic China

• Published in: Forests
• Main Authors: Yao, Yunjun, Liang, Shunlin, Cheng, Jie, Lin, Yi, Jia, Kun, Liu, Meng
• Other Authors: Yao, YJ (reprint author), Beijing Normal Univ, State Key Lab Remote Sensing Sci, Coll Global Change & Earth Syst Sci, 19 Xinjiekou St, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China., Beijing Normal Univ, State Key Lab Remote Sensing Sci, Coll Global Change & Earth Syst Sci, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China., Univ Maryland, Dept Geog Sci, College Pk, MD 20742 USA., Peking Univ, Inst Remote Sensing & GIS, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Beijing Normal Univ, State Key Lab Remote Sensing Sci, Coll Global Change & Earth Syst Sci, 19 Xinjiekou St, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China.
• Format: Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: forests 2014
• Subjects: deforestation; evapotranspiration; subarctic China; climate variability; PRIESTLEY-TAYLOR ALGORITHM; ATMOSPHERE WATER FLUX; LATENT-HEAT FLUX; AMAZON DEFORESTATION; EDDY-COVARIANCE; EVAPORATION; MODIS; TRENDS; SCALE; VALIDATION; Priestley; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/388049; https://doi.org/10.3390/f5102542

Although deforestation affects hydrological and climatic variables over tropical regions, its actual contributions to changes in evapotranspiration (ET) over subarctic China remain unknown. To establish a quantitative relationship between deforestation and terrestrial ET variations, we estimated ET using a semi-empirical Penman (SEMI-PM) algorithm driven by meteorological and satellite data at both local and regional scales. The results indicate that the estimated ET can be used to analyse the observed inter-annual variations. There is a statistically significant positive relationship between local-scale forest cover changes (F) and annual ET variations (ET) of the following form: ET = 0.0377F - 2.11 (R-2 = 0.43, p < 0.05). This relationship may be due to deforestation-induced increases in surface albedo and a reduction in the fractional vegetation cover (FVC). However, the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), rather than deforestation, dominates the multi-decadal ET variability due to regional-scale wind speed changes, but the exact effects of deforestation and ENSO on ET are challenging to quantify. http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000344352900008&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701 Forestry SCI(E) EI 0 ARTICLE [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail] 10 2542-2560 5