Evaporation, transpiration, and ecosystem water use efficiency in a multi-annual sugarcane production system in Hawai'i, USA

Food and biofuel production will require practices that increase water use efficiency in order to have future sustainability in a water-constrained environment. One possible practice is the use of food and energy crops with multi-annual growing periods, which could reduce bare soil evaporation. We integrated field water budgets, micrometeorology, and plant sampling to observe plant growth and evapotranspiration (ET) in two sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) fields in Hawai'i, USA in contrasting environments with unusually long (18-24 month) growing periods. We partitioned observed ET into evaporation and transpiration using a flux partitioning model and calculated ecosystem water use efficiency (EWUE=Net Ecosystem Productivity/ET) and harvest WUE (HWUE=Aboveground Net Ecosystem Productivity/ET) to assess sugarcane water use efficiency. After the start of the mid-period, our higher elevation, less windy field ('Lee') had a slightly higher mean EWUE (31.5 kg C ha-1 mm-1) than our lower elevation, windier ('Windy') field (mean EWUE of 30.7 kg C ha-1 mm-1). HWUE was also very high (HWUE >27 kg C ha-1 mm-1) in both fields due to aboveground biomass composing >87% of total biomass. Transpiration, as a fraction of total ET, increased rapidly with canopy cover in both fields; during the mid-period, transpiration was an average of 84% of total ET in Windy and 80% in Lee, with Lee showing greater variation than Windy. As expected, daily EWUE increased with canopy cover during the initial growing stages; more significantly, EWUE showed no substantial decrease during the 2nd year with an aging crop. The results illustrate the potential for longer-rotation crop cycles for increasing water use efficiency, particularly in tropical regions.