Seminar: Anne Hoek van Dijke

Vegetation characteristics and terrestrial evaporation are closely linked. Vegetation impacts evaporation by enhancing the water and energy availability, and by increasing the aerodynamic conductance. On the other hand, vegetation can decrease evaporation through stomatal closure. Changes in vegetation characteristics therefore impact water fluxes. In my presentation, I will show that changes in vegetation can have profound impact on water fluxes, and that these impacts can be of similar magnitude as the expected impacts of climate warming. Knowledge of the local and remote effects of tree restoration can help to pinpoint suitable regions for forest restoration, for example to outweigh negative impacts of climate change on water availability.

Next to the causal relation between vegetation and evaporation, various studies found a strong statistical correlation between the vegetation´s leaf area and ecosystem evaporation. Because of this statistical link, satellite measurements of the vegetation are sometimes being used to estimate large-scale evaporation. However, in many of my studies, I found that the vegetation looks can be deceiving when studying evaporation. In this presentation I will dive into this statistical link between the vegetation and evaporation and I will show that, under different conditions, satellite information of the vegetation should not be used to infer information about water fluxes.