Effect of earth–air breathing on evaporation of deeply buried phreatic water in extremely arid regions

Abstract

Abstract In extremely arid regions, deeply buried phreatic water evaporates during the daytime from March to November in the northern hemisphere. It has been found that the earth–air undergoes ‘autonomous breathing’ and ‘passive breathing’, respectively caused by the changes of temperature and atmospheric pressure. In this paper, the effects of these breathing modes on phreatic evaporation (PhE) were investigated as well as the responsible mechanisms. Quantitative estimates suggest that the direct contribution from autonomous breathing is only 0.55 g·m −2 ·yr −1 . Passive breathing pumps water vapour upwards from the deeply buried phreatic water table. Film water on the soil continuously migrates in pulsation from deep layers to the upper layer. Na 2 SO 4 in the shallow soil absorbs moisture from the earth–air at night and decomposes during the day, forming water vapour, which is critical to the occurrence of PhE. The diurnal PhE process can be elucidated in detail by the bimodal variation in the atmospheric pressure. PhE occurs mainly from 10:00 to 17:00 during daytime from March to November, which correlates with passive breathing of the earth–air. The amplitude of atmospheric fluctuation determines the amount of earth–air that outflows, while temperature determines the water vapour concentration. In calculation, PhE is equal to the net absolute humidity (AH) times the amount of earth–air. There is 1.55 mm·year −1 of PhE caused by daily peak→valley differences, and about 2.97 mm·year −1 in estimation caused by numerous atmospheric fluctuations smaller than 2.84 hPa. The results coincide with the actual amount of PhE monitored of 4.52 mm·year −1 . Therefore, the amount of PhE is proportional to the range and frequency of fluctuation in external atmospheric pressure, and is also positively related to soil temperature, salt content, water content, porosity, and vadose zone thickness.