Spatiotemporal Variability of Actual Evapotranspiration and the Dominant Climatic Factors in the Pearl River Basin, China

Evapotranspiration is a vital component of the land surface process, thus, a more accurate estimate of evapotranspiration is of great significance to agricultural production, research on climate change, and other activities. In order to explore the spatiotemporal variation of evapotranspiration under global climate change in the Pearl River Basin (PRB), in China, this study conducted a simulation of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) during 1960−2014 based on the variable infiltration capacity (VIC) model with a high spatial resolution of 0.05°. The nonparametric Mann−Kendall (M−K) test and partial correlation analysis were used to examine the trends of ETa. The dominant climatic factors impacting on ETa were also examined. The results reveal that the annual ETa across the whole basin exhibited a slight but not significant increasing trend during the 1960−2014 period, whereas a significant decreasing trend was found during the 1960−1992 period. At the seasonal scale, the ETa showed a significant upward trend in summer and a significant downward trend in autumn. At the spatial scale, the ETa generally showed a decreasing, but not significant, trend in the middle and upper stream of the PRB, while in the downstream areas, especially in the Pearl River Delta and Dongjiang River Basin, it exhibited a significant increasing trend. The variation of the ETa was mainly associated with sunshine hours and average air pressure. The negative trend of the ETa in the PRB before 1992 may be due to the significant decrease in sunshine hours, while the increasing trend of the ETa after 1992 may be due to the recovery of sunshine hours and the significant decrease of air pressure. Additionally, we found that the “paradox” phenomenon detected by ETa mainly existed in the middle-upper area of the PRB during the period of 1960−1992.