Changes and determining factors of crop evapotranspiration derived from satellite-based dual crop coefficients in North China Plain

Evaluating actual crop evapotranspiration (ET c ) variations and their determining factors under changing climates is crucial for agricultural irrigation management and crop productivity improvement in non-humid regions. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics and detected the determining factors of ET c for winter wheat and summer maize rotation system from 2000 to 2017 in the North China Plain (NCP), by combining the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach with remotely sensed vegetation indices (VIs). The results indicated that daily air temperature increased in varying degrees while wind speed and sunshine hours decreased slightly during the growing season of winter wheat and summer maize over the study period. The trends of relative humidity and effective precipitation varied in crop growing seasons. Based on the validated relationship of dual crop coefficients and VIs, the estimated multi-year average ET c of winter wheat (370.29 ± 31.28 mm) was much higher than summer maize (281.85 ± 20.14 mm), and the rotation cycle was 652.43 ± 27.67 mm. Annual ET c of winter wheat and the rotation cycle increased by 2.96 mm a −1 and 1.77 mm a −1 , respectively. However, the ET c of summer maize decreased with distinct spatial variation. Spatially, winter wheat ET c increased significantly in the northeast NCP, covering the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei areas. Meanwhile, significant increases in summer maize ET c were detected in the southwest NCP. The sensitivity and contribution analysis showed that ET c of winter wheat and summer maize was positively sensitive to temperature, wind speed, and sunshine hours while negatively to relative humidity. Moreover, wind speed and sunshine hours contributed most to changes in ET c (around 20%–40%).