Modeling maize evapotranspiration using three types of canopy resistance models coupled with single-source and dual-source hypotheses—A comparative study in a semi-humid and drought-prone region

Abstract

The reliability and accuracy of canopy resistance (rc) are crucial for the evapotranspiration (ET) estimation in sparsely vegetated ecosystems, but most studies are still limited to the single-source Penman-Monteith (PM) model. In this study, we coupled three types of rc models (three-way model: Jarvis, JA; two-way model: Kelliher-Leuning, KL; Farias, FA; one-way model: Katerji-Perrier, KP; Massman, MA) to the PM and Shuttleworth-Wallace (SW) models to assess their applicability and stability under single-source and dual-source hypotheses in a maize field in northwest China. The models were calibrated and validated against the observed data from a three-year (2011–2013) field experiment based on genetic algorithms (GA). The results indicated that the rc coupled models optimized by GA greatly alleviated the overestimation of the original PM and SW models with mean absolute error (MAE) decreased by 13.85%-40.77% and determination coefficient (R2) increased by 0.40%-7.37%. The SW-type models achieved overall high performance to simulate ET at a diurnal timescale over the entire crop season compared to the equivalent PM-type models. The three-way JA model including crop, soil and meteorological factors tended to perform more accurately than the other rc models, and the coupled SW-JA model was optimal for predicting maize ET over the entire growing season. The two-way KL model produced lower errors than the FA model, whereas the FA model had the potential to be improved due to the highest R2 with the field-based ET for both PM- and SW- hypotheses. In addition, the sensitivity analysis to environmental variables showed the effect of leaf area index (LAI) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was less on ET compared with net radiation (Rn) and soil moisture (θ). This study contributes to the knowledge in the area of actual ET modeling over sparse vegetation, which provides a reference for agricultural and environmental applications.