Forests 2014, 5(10), 2542-2560; doi:10.3390/f5102542
Impacts of Deforestation and Climate Variability on Terrestrial Evapotranspiration in Subarctic China
1
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, No.19 Xinjiekou Street, Beijing 100875, China
2
Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
3
Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 26 June 2014 / Revised: 6 October 2014 / Accepted: 20 October 2014 / Published: 23 October 2014
Abstract
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 = 0.0377∆F – 2.11 (R2 = 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 Niño/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. View Full-Text
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MDPI and ACS Style
Yao, Y.; Liang, S.; Cheng, J.; Lin, Y.; Jia, K.; Liu, M. Impacts of Deforestation and Climate Variability on Terrestrial Evapotranspiration in Subarctic China. Forests 2014, 5, 2542-2560.