Spatiotemporal patterns of evapotranspiration along the North American east coast as influenced by multiple environmental changes

Abstract

The North American east coast has experienced significant land-use and climate changes since the beginning of the 20th century. In this study, using the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model 2.0 driven by time-series input data of land use, climate and atmospheric CO2, we examined how these driving forces have affected the spatiotemporal trends and variability of evapotranspiration (ET) in this region during 1901-2008. Annual ET in the North American east coast during this period was 648.3±38.6mm/year and demonstrated an increasing trend. Factorial model simulations indicated that climate variability explained 76% of the inter-annual ET variability. Although land-use change only explained 16% of the ..