Trends in land surface evapotranspiration across China with remotely sensed NDVI and climatological data for 1981–2010

Using satellite observations of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from NOAA-AVHRR and Terra-MODIS, together with climatic data in a physical evapotranspiration (ET) model, the spatio-temporal variability of ET is investigated in terrestrial China from 1981 to 2010. The model predictions of actual ET (ETa) are validated with ET values from in situ eddy covariance flux measurements and from basin water balance calculations. The national averaged crop reference ET (ETp) and ETa values are 916 ± 21 and 415 ± 12 mm year-1, respectively. The annual ETa pattern is closely associated with vegetation conditions in the eastern part of China, whereas ETa is low in the sparsely-vegetated areas and deserts in the northwestern region, corresponding to scarce rainfall events and amounts. The trends of ETp and ETa are remarkably different over the country, and the complementary relationship between ETp and ETa is revealed for the study period. Averaged over the whole country, ETa showed an increasing trend from the 1980s to the mid-1990s, followed by a decreasing trend, consistent with the precipitation anomaly. Across the main vegetation types, annual ETa amounts are found to correspond clearly with the bands of precipitation and ETp.