The biophysical effects of potential changes in irrigated crops on diurnal land surface temperature in Northeast China

Abstract

Irrigated crops have experienced a significant global expansion. The biophysical response of climate change to irrigated crop expansion in different regions, particularly in terms of monitoring the influence mechanism of nighttime land surface temperature (LST) change, however, remains insufficiently explored. Taking the three northeastern provinces of China as our study area, we apply window analysis, partial correlation analysis, and geographical detector to quantitatively characterize the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of daytime and nighttime LST (diurnal LST) and biophysical parameters, and the main driving mechanism of diurnal LST change. The results showed that irrigated crop expansion led to asymmetric changes in daytime (−2.11 ± 0.2°C, 97.4%) and nighttime (0.64 ± 0.2°C, 79.9%) LST. ΔLSTDT had a negative correlation with ΔLE (63%), but a positive correlation with ΔSSR and ΔH (91% and 77%). This revealed that the cooling effect caused by the superposition of the output latent heat flux and the absorbed solar shortwave radiation was greater than its heating effect. ΔLSTNT and ΔLE had a positive connection across 69% of the region. ΔLSTNT demonstrated a negative correlation with ΔSSR and ΔH in 82% and 75% of the regions, respectively. At this time, the superposition of latent heat flux and heating potential term produces a greater heating effect. The explanatory power of the single factor (the mean of q<0.50) of biophysical parameters for diurnal LST variation was significantly smaller than that of the interaction factor (the mean of q>0.50, p<0.01). This study shows more detailed dynamic information of diurnal LST and biophysical parameters from 8day scale. The findings highlighted the critical role of asymmetric changes in the diurnal surface thermal environment caused by irrigated crop expansion in the global climate from a land surface hydrothermal energy balance perspective.