ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Field Water Management
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fagro.2025.1684454
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrated Water Management for Climate-Resilient Agriculture: Models, Remote Sensing, and Decision Support SystemsView all articles
Impact of Evapotranspiration on Ecosystem Services Values in Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis L.) Plantations: Insights Into Climate Change and Rubber Plantation Expansion in Southwestern China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yunnan University, Kunming, China
- 2Kunming University, Kunming, China
- 3Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences Agricultural Economy and Information Research Institute, Kunming, China
- 4Yunnan Institute of water & Hydropower Engineering Investigation, Kunming, China
- 5Qujing Branch of Yunnan Tobacco Company, Qujing, China
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The rapid expansion of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations in Southwestern China has transformed forest-dominated landscapes, but the hydrological consequences have not been quantified comprehensively. This study used the 'Kc-ET₀' method to reconstructed long-term rubber plantation actual evapotranspiration (ETa_reconstructed) by integrating meteorological data and crop coefficient (Kc,actual). The coefficient of variation (CV) and the Random Forest (RF) algorithm were used to identify key drivers and analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of ETa_reconstructed. Finally, the influence of ETa_reconstructed on main ecosystem services values (ESVs) was quantitatively evaluated. Results showed that rubber plantations expanded by 12.49×10⁴ ha/decade (2000–2022). The annual average ETa_reconstructed of 952 mm has increased by 12 mm/decade since 1970. ETa_reconstructed exhibited stable interannual variability, with a coefficient of variation (CV) ranging from 0.04 to 0.11, and showed significant, positive correlations with maximum temperature, sunshine duration (SSD), and rubber plantation area but a negative correlation with relative humidity (RH). SSD (28.5–38.4%) and rubber plantation area (11.4–20.3%) emerged as crucial ETa_reconstructed drivers. The optimal ESVs of rubber plantations were achieved at a multi-year average SSD of 4.17 hours: ETa_reconstructed ranged between 2.0–3.0 mm/d, and carbon sequestration and oxygen release reached peak values. In conclusion, ETa_reconstructed affected rubber plantation ESVs in southwestern China through increased SSD. The optimal ETa_reconstructed range was identified to provide a scientific foundation for the precise water management of tropical rubber plantations in response to climate change.
Keywords: Crop evapotranspiration, Spatiotemporal variation, Climate Change, landcover and use change, Ecosystem services values, rubber (Hevea brasiliensis)plantations
Received: 12 Aug 2025; Accepted: 16 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ling, Xia, Su, He, Gu, Zhao and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shixiang Gu, 13078773756@163.com
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