Advection and Evapotranspiration of Wide‐Row Sorghum in the Central Great Plains1

Abstract

AbstractThis study was conducted to evaluate the importance of advection as a source of energy for evapotranspiration from grain sorghum planted in 1‐m rows with both irrigated and dryland conditions. Detailed measurements of temperature, water vapor content, and wind speed were made within and above the canopy at various times and positions within the field during August 1967. Evapotranspiration was also measured by soil moisture sampling. Three types of advection were observed. Withincanopy advection resulted from the large amount of exposed dry soil between rows, which caused soil temperature between the rows to be as much as 20 C higher than plant temeprature. About 64% of the energy used to heat up the soil was used for transpiration in the irrigated plot, whereas only about 21% of the energy was used for transpiration in the dryland plot. Border advection, manifested by horizontal temperature and water vapor gradients, occurred over most of the plot irrigated but was most evident from 0 to 40 m from the upwind edge. This type of advection yielded sufficient energy to account for about 30% of the energy used for evapotranspiration from the irrigated plot. Large scale advection, manifested by temperature inversions, was found to occur during the night and probably yielded very little energy used for evapotranspiartion.