The influence of seasonal cropland abandonment on water resources in the humid lowland region, southern China

Seasonal abandonment in the previously rice-based rotation system is increasingly prevalent worldwide particularly in southern China. Assessing the effect of this abandonment on evapotranspiration (ET) and water resources is of major importance for regional water cycle change and agricultural water management. This paper analyzed the ET characterization of rice‐winter rape and rice‐winter fallow rotation systems and its relation to weather factors in a humid lowland region, southern China based on a half-hourly ET measurement with Bowen ratio energy balance system from 2017 to 2020. Then the strategic modelling experiment combining ET and rainfall‐runoff models was used to explore the land abandoning effect on ET and water resources.