Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2017, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3): 348-358.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2016.0236

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Shrub encroachment effect on the evapotranspiration and its component—A numerical simulation study of a shrub encroachment grassland in Nei Mongol, China

Qi-Dan WANG1, Wen-Xin YANG1, Jie-Yu HUANG1, Kun XU1, Pei WANG1,2,*()   

  1. 1School of Natural Resources, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    and
    2State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • Online:2017-03-10 Published:2017-04-12
  • Contact: Pei WANG
  • About author:KANG Jing-yao(1991-), E-mail: kangjingyao_nj@163.com

Abstract:

Aims Shrub encroachment is a common global change phenomenon occurring in arid and semi-arid regions. Due to the difficulty of partitioning evapotranspiration into shrub plants, grass plants and soil in the field, there are few studies focusing on shrub encroachment effect on the evapotranspiration and its component in China. This study aims to illustrate shrub encroachment effect on evapotranspiration by the numerical modeling method. Methods A two-source model was applied and calibrated with the measured evapotranspiration (ET) by the Bowen ratio system to simulate evapotranspiration and its component in a shrub encroachment grassland in Nei Mongol, China. Based on the calibrated model and previous shrub encroachment investigation, we set three scenarios of shrub encroachment characterized by relative shrub coverage of 5%, 15% and 30%, respectively, and quantified their effects caused by shrub encroachment through localized and calibrated two-source model.Important findings The two-source model can well reconstruct the evapotranspiration characteristics of a shrub encroachment grassland. Sensitivity analysis of the model shows that errors for the input variables and parameters have small influence on the result of partitioning evapotranspiration. The result shows that shrub encroachment has relatively small influence on the total amount of ET, but it has clear influence on the proportion of the components of evapotranspiration (E/ET). With shrub coverage increasing from 5% to 15% and then 30%, the evapotranspiration decreased from 182.97 to 180.38 and 176.72 W·m-2, decreasing amplitude values of 0.34% and 0.44%, respectively. On average, E/ET rises from 52.9% to 53.9% and 55.5%, increasing amplitude values to 2.04% and 3.25%. Data analysis indicates that shrub encroachment results in smaller soil moisture changes, but clear changes of ecosystem structure (decreasing ecosystem leaf area index while increasing vegetation height) which lead to the decrease of transpiration fraction through decreasing canopy conductance. The research highlights that, with the shrub encroachment, more water will be consumed as soil evaporation which is often regarded as invalid part of evapotranspiration and thus resulting in the decrease of water use efficiency.

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Key words: shrub encroachment, eco-hydrological effect, evapotranspiration, two-source model, numerical simulation