Changes in reference evapotranspiration over an agricultural region in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, China

Reference evapotranspiration (ET0), as an estimate of the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, has been receiving extensive attention in researches on hydrological cycle. Sensitivity of ET0 to major climatic variables has significant applications in climatology, hydrology, and agrometeorology and is also important to improve our understanding of the connections between climatic conditions and ET0 variability. In this study, we used the Penman-Monteith equation to calculate ET0 and adopted a nondimensional sensitivity coefficient formula to analyze sensitivities of ET0 to four climatic variables based on daily meteorological data from eight meteorological sites in the Huangshui River basin and surrounding areas during 1961-2010. The results indicated that (1) strong correlations with R-2 up to 0.76 exist between observed Epan and calculated annual ET0; (2) ET0 had a decreasing trend in the Huangshui River basin (HRB) during 1961-2010; (3) Spatially, distribution of ET0 was largely correlated with altitude, for instance, the average annual ET0 was larger in low-altitude areas than in high-altitude areas; (4) ET0 was more sensitive to actual vapor pressure in high-altitude areas while it was more sensitive to temperature in low-altitude areas; and (5) ET0 showed a decreasing trend and was consistent with the decreases in net radiation and wind speed at seasonal and annual time scales in HRB during 1961-2010. Sensitivity analysis of ET0 to major climatic variables revealed that temperature was primarily responsible for changes in ET0 in the growing season while actual vapor pressure was the dominating factor causing changes in ET0 in the nongrowing season. However, annual averaged ET0 was more sensitive to actual vapor pressure (R-2=0.63), indicating that actual vapor pressure was possibly the primary climatic variable that causes changes in annual ET0.