Satellite-based estimation of evapotranspiration of an old-growth temperate mixed forest

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Abstract

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key flux in the water cycle and has strong seasonal dynamics for forest ecosystems. Recently eddy flux covariance measurements are continuously taken at a temperate mixed forest in Northeastern China since 2002. In an effort to better understanding the factors that control the seasonal dynamics of ET, here we (1) calculate ecosystem-level water use efficiency (WUE) from observed water and CO2 flux data, and (2) relate the resultant WUE with satellite-derived vegetation indices, and (3) develop and evaluate a simple model that uses satellite images and climate data as input data to predict ET on the coupling of photosynthesis and transpiration processes. Ground WUE estimates obtained from eddy covariance tower were correlated with moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indexes (VIs) and ground micrometeorological data over 3 years (2003–2005). The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) was more closely correlated (r = 0.82) with WUE than the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; r = 0.64). Air temperature (TA) measured over the canopy was the meteorological variable that was most closely correlated with WUE (r = 0.74) over years. For the significant correlation between EVI and TA (r = 0.82, P < 0.05), EVI was selected as the single variable to predict WUE to simplify calculation. We calculated ET by ET = GPP/WUE, gross primary production (GPP) was predicted by vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) that uses satellite images and meteorological variables. At a temporal resolution of 8 days, the annual curves showed good correspondence between measured and predicted values of WUE and ET in terms of phase and magnitude for each year. Seasonally integrated predicted ET was +4% (in 2003), +2% (in 2004), +0.4% (in 2005) higher than observed values.

Introduction

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the major link between the global energy budgets and hydrological cycles (Smith and Choudhury, 1990), and is a key component of the water budget at a wide range of scales. Accurate monitoring and estimation of ET continuously over large area is the basis for effective spatially resolved water related applications such as management of water resource projects, risk assessments for bushfires, and flooding (Hameed and Mario, 1993, Raupach, 2001). Satellite remote sensing provides routine observations, such as vegetation and land surface temperature, and offers possibilities for extending point measurements or empirical relationships to much larger areas, and many studies have incorporated remote sensing data into ET estimation (Seguin et al., 1994, Kustas and Norman, 1996, Carlson and Buffum, 1989, Allen et al., 2005, Garatuza-Payan and Watts, 2005).

The use of remote sensing models or models coupled with remote sensing is highly recommended to monitor ET over large areas continuously (Verstraeten et al., 2005). Two kinds of approaches have been taken to predict ET from remote sensing data: energy balance-based physical model and empirical model that relate ET to vegetation index (VI) measurements over growing season.

Physical models attempt to predict ET from the surface energy balance equation (Nagler et al., 2005a). Among these models, resistance–surface energy balance model has been widely reported (Cleugh and Dunin, 1995, Hall et al., 1992, Kalma and Jupp, 1990), while its performance has been shown to be unreliable (Cleugh et al., 2007). The Penman–Monteith model provides a more robust approach to estimating land surface evaporation, while its routine application is always hindered by requiring meteorological forcing data and the aerodynamic and surface resistances (Mauser and Schädlich, 1998, Moran et al., 1996, Cleugh et al., 2007).

Empirical methods utilize the scatter plot between VIs and Ts to derive surface resistance (Price, 1990, Yang et al., 1997, Jiang and Islam, 2001) following the idea of Nemani and Running (1989). However, this requires a continuum of soil moisture (from dry bare soil to saturated bare soil) and vegetation status (from water-stressed full-cover vegetation to well-watered full-cover vegetation) to provide a range of surface conditions. The effects of soil evaporation and vegetation stresses added scatter and uncertainty into the ET estimates (Nagler et al., 2005a). Several researchers tried to explore statistical models using remote sensing to extrapolate eddy covariance water and carbon flux data to regional scales. For example, Wylie et al. (2003) related normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to carbon fluxes in a sage-brush-steppe ecosystem, and Nagler et al., 2005a, Nagler et al., 2005b developed an a multivariate regression equation for ET prediction over large reaches of western U.S. rivers by combining remote sensing with flux site measurements with a relative root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 25%. These studies established the potential of using statistical techniques to extrapolate ET measured at eddy covariance flux towers to a regional scale.

Eddy covariance technique is a scale-appropriate way to scale ground measurements of ET and other biophysical processes over larger areas, and to project the results over periods of years, to be used for routine monitoring of regional ecosystems (Running et al., 1999) with relatively minimum uncertainties. It directly measures ET over area possessing longitudinal dimensions ranging between a 100 m and several kilometers (Schmid, 1994) across a spectrum of times scales, ranging from hours to years (Wofsy et al., 1993, Baldocchi et al., 2001). It can provide effective information of ET and biophysical processes which are critical for evaluating ET model and understanding the factors controlling seasonal dynamics of water fluxes (Law et al., 2002).

For vegetation covered area, the close coupling between transpiration and photosynthesis processes is observed (Stanhill, 1986, Steduto et al., 1997, Reichstein et al., 2002, Yu et al., 2008). There are a number of studies of photosynthesis, gross primary production (GPP), and net primary production (NPP) using several methods including measurements, remote sensing, modelling, etc. (Potter et al., 1993, Ruimy et al., 1994, Prince and Goward, 1995, Justice et al., 1998, Xiao et al., 2004a, Turner et al., 2006). GPP often increases with ET across vegetation types. The ratios of GPP to ET, which is defined as water use efficiency (WUE), are similar across vegetation types (Law et al., 2002) and strongly influenced by weather conditions (De Wit, 1958, Tanner and Sinclair, 1983, Law et al., 2002, Abbate et al., 2004, Yu et al., 2008). WUE has been estimated by complex physical model (Gutschick, 2007) or simple meteorology drived empirical models (Wang et al., 2007). There is little report on direct estimation of WUE from satellite images.

In this paper, our objectives are (1) to understand seasonal dynamics of WUE calculated from eddy flux tower data; (2) to develop the quantitative relationship between vegetation indices and WUE, here defined as the ratio of GPP to ET; (3) to predict ET with predicted WUE and GPP estimated from a satellite-based vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) that uses satellite imagery, air temperature, and photosynthetically actively radiation (PAR; Xiao et al., 2004a, Xiao et al., 2004b, Xiao et al., 2005), we named as EvapoTranspiration on the Coupling between Photosynthesis and Transpiration (ET-CPT) model. The study site is mature mixed forest ecosystem in Changbai mountain, North-east of China. Flux tower has been established since 2002 in this forest ecosystem and many years of data has been reported (Zhang et al., 2006a, Zhang et al., 2006b).

Section snippets

Study sites and field data

The eddy flux tower site is located in No. 1 Plot at Forest Ecosystem Opened Research Station of Changbai Mountains (128°5′45.79E and 42°24′8.88″ N, Jilin Province, P.R. China), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The annual mean temperature is 0.9–4.0 °C, annual total precipitation is 600–810 mm year−1 (evaluated over a period of 20 years). The area is covered by on average 200-year-old, multi-storied, uneven-aged, multi-species mixed forest consisting of Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis), Tilia amurensis,

Quantitative relationships between WUE and VIs and meteorological variables

We conducted simple correlation analysis between WUE and vegetation indices, and between WUE and meteorological variables (Table 1). WUE was significantly correlated with both NDVI and EVI, but the correlation coefficients were generally higher for EVI than that for NDVI (Table 1 and Fig. 2). One possible reason for this may be that NDVI values were saturated in well-vegetated areas, as the LAI at the old-growth forest site is relatively high (up to 6.1 m2 m−2), while EVI does not appear to be as

Accuracy of eddy covariance data

Flux measurements require careful calibration to produce reliable data (Rana and Katerji, 2000, Scott et al., 2004). Eddy covariance results reported in this study have been validated in several studies. Wu et al. (2005) compared ET estimate by Bowen-ratio energy balance (BREB) method with corresponding ET measurements by eddy covariance technique. Over a 1 month measurement period, the BREB-based estimates for ET were within 6% of eddy covariance estimates. Diao et al. (2005) and Wang et al.

Acknowledgements

This paper is a contribution to the ChinaFLUX projects at Changbai Mountains Forest Ecosystem Opened Research Station. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30590381, 30500079, 90411020). Xiao was supported by grants from NASA Land Use and Land Cover Change program.

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