Evapotranspiration under drought conditions: the case study of a seasonally dry Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Information on evapotranspiration (ET) has the potential to clarify drought’s effects on the water balance of natural ecosystems. Here, we use a 6-year dataset to present daily ET trends under different drought conditions in a seasonally dry Atlantic Forest in southeast Brazil as well as environmental and biophysical controls. Generalized linear models (GLMs) were applied to highlight the main controls on ET. Significant differences for ET were not found under different drought conditions (near normal, moderately dry, and severely dry). ET responded positively to net radiation (Rn), bulk surface (gs), and aerodynamic (ga) conductance. Drought severity and soil water storage (SWS) did not significantly affect ET. We attributed the regularization of ET to (i) the stability in the SWS observed in the study site (dystrophic red latosol); (ii) the tree species’ adaptations to cope with water stress; (iii) the alternation between droughts and near-normal conditions (which have increased the water in the system on an annual basis); and (iv) the monthly variations in water inputs within the hydrological years. Finally, our study sheds light on the ecosystem characteristics that may represent sources of resilience when facing the droughts predicted in climate change scenarios.