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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Evapotranspiration on a greening Earth

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 4, pages 626–641 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Evapotranspiration (ET) — the distribution and partitioning of which is strongly mediated by vegetation — is central to the water, energy and carbon cycles. In this Review, we examine the spatiotemporal patterns of ET changes and their linkages with vegetation. A multi-decadal and accelerating rise in global ET is apparent since the 1980s. Diagnostic data sets indicate increases of 0.66 ± 0.38 mm year−2 (mean ± one standard deviation) over 1982–2011 and 1.19 ± 0.31 mm year−2 over 2001–2020. These changes are largely related to vegetation greening (increasing leaf area index (LAI)), hence large ET increases occur in northern high latitudes where greening predominates; increased precipitation and enhanced atmospheric evaporative demand have secondary roles. The impacts of specific drivers of vegetation change on ET, such as CO2 fertilization, land use change and nitrogen deposition, are uncertain and difficult to quantify at the global scale but have strong impacts at local and/or regional scales. Owing to projected increases in LAI, global ET is expected to continue rising with future anthropogenic warming, although ET sensitivity to greening is lower than in the present climate. Enhanced model validation with respect to long-term trends and ET partitioning, improved mechanistic understanding of key processes and greater data-model fusion techniques are essential for improved understanding of ET characteristics.

Key points

  • Plant transpiration (Ec) dominates global evapotranspiration (ET). The ratio of transpiration over ET does not increase monotonically with the leaf area index (LAI), partly due to concurrent increases in interception loss.

  • Vegetation greening has primarily and increasingly promoted a multi-decadal increase in global ET since the 1980s.

  • Extended growing seasons have altered the seasonal cycle of ET, with changes in spring and autumn ET in northern mid to high latitudes closely correlated with changes in vegetation phenology.

  • The effect of CO2 fertilization on ET is limited at the global scale but shows a clear contrast between wet (negative impact) and dry (positive impact) regions for the past few decades.

  • Global ET is projected to continue increasing under future climate change. However, whether the CO2 fertilization effect on vegetation water use is accounted for underlies the different projections of future ET trends and the consequent hydrological impacts.

  • Global ET increase contributes to increased land precipitation and decreased near-surface air temperature.

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Fig. 1: Spatial pattern of mean annual evapotranspiration and its components.
Fig. 2: Trends in global evapotranspiration.
Fig. 3: Changes in the seasonality of evapotranspiration and the linkage with changes in vegetation phenology.
Fig. 4: Projected changes in global evapotranspiration.
Fig. 5: Trends in evapotranspiration induced by CO2 fertilization, land use change and nitrogen deposition.
Fig. 6: Evapotranspiration impacts on climate.

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Data availability

Data sets used in this Review are all publicly available and are summarized in the Supplementary Material.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41890821, 42071029, 42041004), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Xibuzhiguang Project (Grant No. xbzg-zdsys-202103) and the Department of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (Grant No. 202203AA080010). Y.Q.Z. acknowledges support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFC3002804), the CAS Pioneer Talents Program and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (2019QZKK0208). S.F. acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Education — Tier 2 project ID MOE-000379-00. D.G.M. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant agreement 101088405 (HEAT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yuting Yang, Zhuoyi Tu, Rong Gan & Dawen Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Hydrosphere Sciences of the Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing, China

    Yuting Yang, Zhuoyi Tu, Rong Gan & Dawen Yang

  3. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Michael L. Roderick

  4. College of Water Resources, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, China

    Hui Guo

  5. Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Diego G. Miralles

  6. CSIRO Environment, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Lu Zhang & Tim R. McVicar

  7. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Lu Zhang

  8. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Simone Fatichi

  9. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Xiangzhong Luo

  10. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, China

    Yongqiang Zhang & Xuanze Zhang

  11. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Trevor F. Keenan

  12. Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Trevor F. Keenan

  13. Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA

    Joshua B. Fisher

  14. Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Shilong Piao

  15. College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Baoqing Zhang

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Y.Y initiated writing of the Review and organized the writing process. Y.Y. and D.Y wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors made substantial contributions to the discussion of the content and reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Yang, Y., Roderick, M.L., Guo, H. et al. Evapotranspiration on a greening Earth. Nat Rev Earth Environ 4, 626–641 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00464-3

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