干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution and change rate of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) calculated by the FAO Penman-Monteith method based on meteorological data from 96 weather stations from 1951 to 2011 located in Northeast China and quantified the contribution of driving climatic factors to ET0. The results showed that annual ET0 was 659.9 mm ranged from 433.86 mm to 894.49 mm with a significant increasing trend of about 11.76 mm per decade. Annual mean maximum temperature increased by 0.15 degrees C per decade while wind speed, sunshine duration and relative humidity showed decreased by 0.14 m s(-1) per decade, 33.76 hours per decade and 1.0% per decade, respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed that relative humidity was the most sensitive variables, then followed by maximum temperature while wind speed and sunshine duration exhibited the least sensitivity. However, the contribution of the increase in maximum temperature to ET0 was far larger than other meteorological variables. This study indicated that ET0 has been aggravated in recent several decades with climate warming and water shortage will be serious in Northeast China.