Dynamics of the Evaporation of Intercepted Precipitation during the Last Two Decades over China

The evaporation of intercepted precipitation (Ei) is an important component of evapotranspiration. Investigating the spatial and temporal variations of Ei and its driving factors can improve our understanding of water and energy balance in the context of China’s greening. This study investigated the spatial and temporal variation of Ei across China during 2001−2020 using PML ET product with a temporal resolution of 8 days and a spatial resolution of 500 m. The results showed that Ei generally decreased from southeast to northwest, which was contributed by the coupled effect of precipitation and vegetation coverage variation across China. Generally, Ei showed an increasing trend over the last two decades with an average changing rate of 0.45 mm/year. The changing rate varied greatly among different regions, with the most obvious change occurring in tropical and humid regions. Precipitation was the most important climatic factor driving the interannual change of Ei over the past two decades, with an average contribution rate of 30.18~37.59%. Relative humidity was the second most important climatic factor following precipitation. Temperature showed contracting contribution in different thermal regions. The contribution rates of NDVI and LAI followed a similar spatial pattern. Both the contribution rates of NDVI and LAI generally increased along the moisture gradient from east to west and generally increased from south to north.