At the end of this Unit, you should understand the following:

• How and why transpiration occurs.

• How transpiration is measured.
• The impact of transpiration of surface.
• How and why infiltration occurs.
• Which factors determine the infiltration capacity.
5 TRANSPIRATION

Transpiration is the process by which water leaves the living plant structure and
reaches the atmosphere as water vapour. All plants need water to sustain life, but only
about 10% of the water needed by a plant is retained in the plant structure. The rest
of the water absorbed by the roots is eventually transpired into the atmosphere through
the leaves of the plant. Therefore, this phenomenon is called transpiration and
together with evaporation from water surfaces is referred to as evapotranspiration.
Evaporation and transpiration occur simultaneously during evapotranspiration.

For any given plant, the factors that affect the free water evaporation also affect
transpiration. However, there is a major difference between transpiration and
evaporation. These differences are stated below:
• Transpiration is restricted to daylight hours and the transpiration rate is
dependent on the growth period of the plant.
• Evaporation continues throughout the day and night although the evaporation
rates would differ during daytime and night-time.
• The evaporation from a cropped soil is primarily determined by the fraction of
the solar radiation reaching the soil surface. This fraction decreases over the
growing period as the crop develops and the crop canopy shades more and
more of the ground area. Therefore, when the crop is small, water is
predominately lost by soil evaporation, but once the crop is well developed
and completely covers the soil, transpiration becomes the main process.

Transpiration can be a threat. For instance, in South Africa the “Blackwattle” tree can
absorb about 130 litres of water a day. If thousands of these trees cover a catchment,
think of all the water lost that could have ran off to the reservoir or river. This is
particularly problematic to the Vaaldam catchment area where these trees are to be
removed in order to increase the runoff substantially. A second example of practical
importance is the hyacinth plant to be found on some dam surfaces increasing the
evaporation of a specific area by 500% or more. Both mentioned vegetation types are
of little or no use to mankind
5.1 FACTORS AFFECTING EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

Factors affecting evapotranspiration are meteorological/weather parameters, crop

characteristics, management and environmental aspects.

5.1.2 METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

The meteorological factors that affect the catchment’s evapotranspiration are weather
parameters which provide energy for evaporation and removal of vapour from the
evaporating surface. These principal weather parameters are:

Solar Radiation:

Solar radiation is the largest energy source and can alter liquid water into water vapor.
Based on the different position of the sun, the potential radiation differs at various
latitude and in different seasons.

Air temperature:

The solar radiation absorbed by atmosphere and the heat emitted by the earth
increase the air temperature. The sensible heat of the surrounding air transfers energy
to the crop and exerts as a controlling influence on the rate of evapotranspiration.
Therefore, in sunny, warm weather the evapotranspiration rate is greater than in
cloudy and cool weather.

Air humidity:

While the energy supply from the sun and surrounding air is the main driving force for
the vaporization of water, the difference between the water vapour pressure at the
evapotranspiring surface and the surrounding air is the determining factor for the
vapour removal. Well-watered fields in hot dry arid regions consume large amounts of
water due to the abundance of energy and the desiccating power of the atmosphere.
In humid tropical regions, notwithstanding the high energy input, the high humidity of
the air will reduce the evapotranspiration demand. In such an environment, the air is
already close to saturation, so that less additional water can be stored and hence the
evapotranspiration rate is lower than in arid regions.

Wind speed:

The process of vapour removal depends to a large extent on wind and air turbulence
which transfers large quantities of air over the evaporating surface. When vaporizing
water, the air above the evaporating surface becomes gradually saturated with water
vapour. If this air is not continuously replaced with drier air, the driving force for water
vapour removal and the evapotranspiration rate decreases.
5.1.3 CROP FACTORS AFFECTING EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

Characteristics of the plant such as; plant’s resistance to transpiration, crops

development stage, crop height, crop roughness, ground cover of where the crop is
planted, and the roots of the crop impacts the evapotranspiration rate.

5.1.4 MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

Factors such as soil salinity, poor land fertility, limited application of fertilizers, the
presence of hard or impenetrable soil horizons, the absence of control of diseases and
pests and poor soil management may limit the crop development and reduce the
evapotranspiration. Other factors That affect the evapotranspiration are ground cover,
plant density and the soil water content. The effect of soil water content on
evapotranspiration is conditioned primarily by the magnitude of the water deficit and
the type of soil. On the other hand, too much water will result in waterlogging which
might damage the root and limit root water uptake by inhibiting respiration. Therefore,
additional consideration should be given to the range of management practices that
act on the climatic and crop factors affecting the evapotranspiration process such as
cultivation practices and the type of irrigation method.
5.2 MEASUREMENT OF EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

The measurement of evapotranspiration for a given vegetation type can be carried out
in two ways: either by using lysimeters or using field plots. The most accurate method
to measure evapotranspiration is lysimeters.

5.2.1 LYSIMETERS

A lysimeter is a special watertight tank containing a block of soil and set in a field of
growing plants. There are two types of lysimeters: the weighing- and the drainage
lysimeter. As shown in Figure 1, the weighing lysimeter is a rather sophisticated piece
of equipment made of oil drums and pipes. The drum/tank filled with soil and
vegetation like that of the surrounding area and supported by a weighing mechanism.
The vegetation should be buried in a way that the soil is the same level inside the
container and outside the container, which is the soil from the surrounding area.

Figure 1: Illustration of a drainage lysimeter

Evapotranspiration can be estimated if the amounts of rainfall, runoff and percolation
in a plant/soil system is known. The evapotranspiration values are obtained indirectly
by calculating changes in the weight of the soil-vegetation system within the tank by
applying the following formula:

PE= I-O

Where

PE= Potential evapotranspiration

Potential evapotranspiration is defined as the amount of water that would evaporate

or transpire from a surface if water was available to that surface in unlimited supply.

I = Water Input (by irrigation and/or rainfall)

O = Water output (collected water from drainage pipe)

5.2.2 FIELD PLOTS

In plots where all elements of the water budget in a known interval of time are
measured, evapotranspiration is determined as:

Evapotranspiration = (Precipitation + Irrigation input -Runoff- Increase in soil storage

groundwater loss)

Measurements used to determine evapotranspiration in field plots are restricted to

precipitation, irrigation input, surface runoff and soil moisture. This is because
groundwater loss due to percolation is difficult to gauge. This method provides reliable
results.

5.3 How evapotranspiration impacts the surface

When laws governing the behaviour of water in the hydrological cycle are made, the
demands of potential evapotranspiration must be first stipulated to ensure that the
potential evapotranspiration demand in the catchment are met (if it is possible),
thereafter the water is allocated to other parts of the cycle.

When precipitation in a catchment area is equal to potential evapotranspiration, the

surplus is theoretically zero and all the precipitation that fell in the specific time satisfy
the evapotranspiration needs. In instances where the precipitation is less than the
potential evapotranspiration, the precipitation that fell only partially satisfy the demand
of potential evaporation. The part of the evapotranspiration demand that is not met by
the precipitation will be drawn from whatever moisture available in the soil zone. If this
condition happens for a prolonged period, the soil eventually becomes depleted of its
moisture. Such periods are frequently referred to as draughts.

EVALUATION EXERCISE

1 Discuss the methods of determining evapotranspiration.

2 Explain how evapotranspiration occur.

3 Differentiate between evaporation and transpiration.

5.4 INFILTRATION

A considerable amount of the precipitation over an area of land does not run off, but
seeps into the ground and become readily available to the plant roots. This
phenomenon is called infiltration.

5.4.1 WHY IS FILTRATION GAUGED?

It is important to know how much water will infiltrate, because the water not infiltrating
the soil will run off. To design a culvert, for instance, we need to know the amount of
runoff likely to collect at its entrance before we can decide upon its diameter.

The infiltration capacity of a soil is not constant and depends on many factors
with the following some of the more important ones:

Type of soil: Clay soils are relatively impermeable, while sandy soils on the other
hand have got a high coefficient of permeability and water enters those soils with ease.

Slope of soil: On steep slopes, the water runs off freely and little time is allowed for
infiltration.

Soil cover: If an area is covered with dense bush, the water will have plenty of time
to infiltrate, whereas with sparse surface cover the rainwater will tend to converge into
streams as runoff.
Depth of water: When water collects into a pool of water, the pressure height above
the surface of the ground increases with subsequent increase of infiltration capacity.

Moisture content of the soil: At the start of a storm, especially after a long dry period,
the infiltration capacity of the dry soil is at its highest. As the rainstorm prolongs, and
the soil gets saturated, the infiltration capacity nears its minimum value.