Impact of Climate Change on Changing Trend of Evapotranspiration during the Growth Period of Irrigated and Rainfed Field Crops by AOGCM Models

Climate change has important impacts on most of the natural processes, including hydrological cycle. Evapotranspiration, as a part of hydrological cycle, will also undergo these changes. Due to the importance of evapotranspiration in water resources and agricultural management, this research was conducted to study climate change effect on evapotranspiration in Neyshabour plain. Evapotranspiration was calculated for five farms in Neyshabour plain using SWAP software and meteorological and agronomic data. In irrigated farms, the HADCM3, ECHAM5OM and CGCM3T47models were used to calculate crop actual evapotranspiration for 2020-2039 and 2080-2099 periods based on A2, B1 and A1B scenarios and the climate model used in rainfed farms was the HADCM3 based on A2 and B1 scenarios. The greatest calculated difference in evapotranspiration was found between the period 2080-2099 and base period (1992-2011) in the A2 scenario. Also, evapotranspiration values for the period 2080-2099 will increase compared to the period 2020-2039 in all three scenarios. Among the crops of investigate, wheat will have the greatest changes (12%) in evapotranspiration in the future periods compared to the base period, while changes of maize will be only 3%. However, the average daily evapotranspiration of maize during the growing season (about 12 mm/day) will be more than the other crops.