Monsoonal Influence on Evapotranspiration of the Tropical Mangrove Forest in Northeast India

Dipnarayan Ganguly, Raghab Ray, Natasha Majumder, Chumki Chowdhury, Tapan Kumar Jana

Department of Marine Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata, India.

DOI: 10.4236/ajcc.2014.32022                

Abstract

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important part of the water cycle. This study reports on the monsoonal influence on the temporal variation in evapotranspiration of an extremely water conservative and salinity stressed tropical mangrove forest at the land-ocean boundary of northeast coast of India. The magnitude and dynamics of evapotranspiration (ET) exhibited seasonality dominated by monsoon and evaporation rate was greater (0.055 ± 0.015 g·m^-2·s^-1) during the monsoon than in pre-monsoon (0.049 ± 0.018 g·m^-2·s^-1) and post-monsoon (0.044 ± 0.012 g·m^-2·s^-1). Seasonal difference in evapotranpiration was mostly due to fluctuation of canopy resistance, which was the minimum during monsoon when relative humidity was greater than in the dry season (pre- and post-monsoon) and deficiency of water supply (ET ≈ ETeq) was minimum. Evapotranspiration in the Sundarban mangrove ecosystem is the predominant biophysical processes that recycles 67.7% of total precipitation annually to the atmosphere, and has significant monsoonal influence.

Keywords

Canopy Resistance, Evapotranspiration, Hydrological Cycle, India, Mangrove Forest, Monsoonal Cycle

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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