Abstract

Field evapotranspiration is an important component in Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum (SPAC), and it is comprised of plant transpiration and soil evaporation. However, the two components of which is difficult to partition. A field experiment was conducted in the Northern China to determine the maize transpiration and soil evaporation during a maize growth period using stable oxygen isotope. A water balance model in field was used to estimate the field evapotranspiration. Maize transpiration and soil evaporation were estimated during the five typical growth stages of seedling, jointing, booting, tasseling, and filling-mature, respectively. The results showed that total field evapotranspiration during the whole maize growth period was 481.8 mm and distributed in the five growth stages were 122.7, 81.9, 82.5, 71.5 and 123.2 mm, respectively, and the fraction of maize transpiration in field evapotranspiration in the five growth stages were 11.8%, 65.0%, 78.3%, 81.8%, and 50.02%, respectively.

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