The partitioning of evapotranspiration into evaporation and transpiration: an experimental design assessing the effects of changes in vegetation cover

This project seeks to improve the student’s understanding of the terrestrial water budget by exploring the dynamics of one of its major components: evapotranspiration, a process that includes the accumulation of both evaporation from the soil and plant surfaces and plant transpiration. Traditionally in both hydrological and ecological sciences, evapotranspiration has been treated as a single component. However, the partitioning into its major components, soil evaporation and plant transpiration, can have important ecological and hydrological implications, especially in the context of current and predicted changes in climate and vegetation. Notably, this project helps our understanding of the effects of changes in vegetation (as expected from current changes in climate and land use) on the partitioning of evapotranspiration into its major components and how they feedback into other ecological and hydrological processes.