Irrigation induced change in vegetation and evapotranspiration in the Central Valley of California

Landscape changes in the Central Valley of California, USA, have been dramatic over the past 100 years. Irrigated agriculture has replaced natural communities of California prairie, riparian forest, tule marsh, valley oak savannah, and San Joaquin saltbrush. This paper addresses the implication of vegetation change on evapotranspiration as a consequence of these changes. It was found that an increase in irrigated agriculture and a 60% reduction in the aerial extent of native vegetation has not produced significant changes in the moisture transfer to the atmosphere. The apparent reason for this result is that irrigated agriculture has substituted one actively transpiring surface for another and, therefore, has not significantly altered the transpiration flux of the landscape.