Evapotranspiration from a Mixed Deciduous Forest Ecosystem

Abstract

The objectives of this paper were to determine evapotranspiration (ET) from an oak-beech dominated forest ecosystem in Belgrad Forest near Istanbul, Turkey by using catchment water balance method and compare it with potential evapotranspiration (PET) computed by using Thornthwaite method. Data, in this study, were derived from a long-term hydrological research conducted in Belgrad Forest. Long-term stream flow measurements (1979-1995) were conducted with concrete sharp-crested V-notch weirs instrumented with automatic water level recorders in two close experimental watersheds. ET values of the watersheds were determined by using water balance equation. Average annual ET values from the old growth oak-beech forest ecosystem during the monitoring period of 17 years were around 833.20 mm for W-I and 752.07 mm for W-IV whereas PET estimated according to Thornthwaite method was found to be 726.14 mm. In other words, 79.68%, and 71.93% of mean annual precipitation evaporated from W-I and W-IV, respectively while 69.45% of precipitation evaporated according to Thornthwaite method. PET estimated with Thornthwaite method differed significantly only from W-I whereas W-I and W-IV had similar ET values.