Changes and determining factors of crop evapotranspiration derived from satellite-based dual crop coefficients in North China Plain

Abstract

Evaluating actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc) variations and their determining factors under changing climates is crucial for agricultural irrigation management and crop productivity improvement in non-humid regions. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics and detected the determining factors of ETc for winter wheat and summer maize rotation system from 2000 to 2017 in the North China Plain (NCP), by combining the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach with remotely sensed vegetation indices (VIs). The results indicated that daily air temperature increased in varying degrees while wind speed and sunshine hours decreased slightly during the growing season of winter wheat and summer maize over the study period. The trends of relative humidity and effective precipitation varied in crop growing seasons. Based on the validated relationship of dual crop coefficients and VIs, the estimated multi-year average ETc of winter wheat (370.29 ± 31.28 mm) was much higher than summer maize (281.85 ± 20.14 mm), and the rotation cycle was 652.43 ± 27.67 mm. Annual ETc of winter wheat and the rotation cycle increased by 2.96 mm a−1 and 1.77 mm a−1, respectively. However, the ETc of summer maize decreased with distinct spatial variation. Spatially, winter wheat ETc increased significantly in the northeast NCP, covering the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei areas. Meanwhile, significant increases in summer maize ETc were detected in the southwest NCP. The sensitivity and contribution analysis showed that ETc of winter wheat and summer maize was positively sensitive to temperature, wind speed, and sunshine hours while negatively to relative humidity. Moreover, wind speed and sunshine hours contributed most to changes in ETc (around 20%–40%).