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Spatiotemporal variations of potential evapotranspiration and aridity index in relation to influencing factors over Southwest China during 1960–2013

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Abstract

This study investigated the spatial–temporal patterns and trends of potential evapotranspiration (ET0) and aridity index (AI) over Southwest China during 1960–2013 based on daily temperature, precipitation, wind speed, sunshine duration, total solar radiation, and relative humidity data from 108 meteorological stations. The Penman–Monteith model, Mann–Kendall (M–K) test, moving t test, and Morlet wavelet method were used. The results indicated that ET0 and AI across the region displayed decreasing trends, but the former was significant. After 2000, regionally average trends in ET0 and AI increased rapidly, indicating that droughts increased over Southwest China in recent years. Spatially, the changes of ET0 and AI were dissimilar and not clustered, either. Temporally, both ET0 and AI displayed obvious abrupt change points over different timescales and that of AI was during the winter monsoon period. Significant periodic variations with periods of 27, 13, and 5 years were found in ET0, but only of 13 and 5 years existed in AI. Correlation analysis revealed that the sunshine duration and wind speed were the dominant factors affecting ET0 and that AI showed strong negative correlation with precipitation. The findings of this study enhance the understanding of the relationship between climate change and drought in Southwest China, while the mechanism controlling the variation in drought requires further study.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2013CB956503), Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41471431), and the Program B for Outstanding PhD candidate of Nanjing University (No. 201602B057).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yifei Zhao, Xinqing Zou, Yulong Yao & Guanghe Fu

  2. Key Laboratory of Coast and Island Development, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Xinqing Zou

  3. School of Tourism and Environment Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710062, China

    Liguo Cao

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  1. Yifei Zhao
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Correspondence to Xinqing Zou.

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Zhao, Y., Zou, X., Cao, L. et al. Spatiotemporal variations of potential evapotranspiration and aridity index in relation to influencing factors over Southwest China during 1960–2013. Theor Appl Climatol 133, 711–726 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2216-4

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