The effect of rainfall amount and timing on annual transpiration in grazed savanna grassland

Abstract. The role of precipitation (P) variability on evapotranspiration (ET) and its two components transpiration (T) and evaporation (E) rates from savannas continues to draw significant research interest given its relevance to a number of eco-hydrological applications. The work here reports on six years of measured ET and energy flux components, and estimated T from a grazed savanna grassland collected at a research site situated in Welgegund, South Africa. During this period, annual P varied considerably in amount (421 mm to 614 mm), rainy season length and precipitation intensity. T was estimated using annual water use efficiency and gross primary production determined from eddy-covariance measurements of net ecosystem CO₂ exchange rates. The computed annual T was highly constrained to 352 ± 8 mm (T/ET = 0.55) for four wet years when rainfall was near or above the long-term mean. This is explained by the near constant annual tree transpiration and moderate water stress of C₄ grasses during these years. In a drought year with intermittent rainfall, the annual ecosystem T was reduced due to grass dieback-regrowth that alters the temporal dynamics of bare soil cover and infiltration, and complicates monthly T/ET relation to leaf-area index (LAI). However, annual ET remains approximately equal to annual precipitation (P) even during the drought year due to increased soil evaporation. Indeed, at annual scales, ET ≈ P and annual T is conservative despite variation in amount and timing in rainfall, due to constant water use of mature trees, and the ability of C₄ grasses to maintain transpiration at moderate water stress and effectively use pulsed rainfall.