Hydrological losses and soil moisture carryover affected the relationship between evapotranspiration and rainfall in a temperate semiarid shrubland

•We investigated ET dynamics over 2012–2020 in a semiarid shrubland.•Canopy greenness and surface conductance controlled monthly ET.•Air and soil dryness constrained ET at timescales of hours to days.•Seasonal and annual ET was largely decoupled from concurrent rainfall amount.•Hydrological losses and soil moisture carryover decoupled ET and rainfall.