Methodological approach for the estimation of evapotranspiration in a natural vegetation microcatchment from a dry páramo ecosystem of eastern Colombian Andes

Abstract:

Páramos are widely known as strategic ecosystems due to their hydrological services as regulators and providers of clean water to millions of inhabitants in the Andean region. Those ecosystem services may be assessed through water fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere. Despite this water loss process has been recently reported in humid páramos, research in dry páramo ecosystems is still scarce. This paper presents a methodological approach to investigate evapotranspiration in a Colombian dry páramo that include the following: i) evaluation of a method(s) to estimate evapotranspiration in said environment and ii) details of the instrumentation used to conduct the measurements on an eleven-hectares microcatchment with native land cover. Preliminary analysis on the environmental variables collected and evapotranspiration estimates are included. This information is a valuable contribution to: i) establish the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, ii) comprehend the global warming influence in the páramo ecosystem and, iii) contribute to identify time/space variability of the hydrological services. In this ecohydrological zone, where land-cover/land-use conflicts are common, evaluating evapotranspiration is crucial to understand the hydrological cycle and provide data inputs for hydrological modelling that aid decision making for land use planning.