Evapotranspiration (ET) at Blue Cypress marsh site, daily data, Indian River County, Florida, June 1, 1995 – October 20, 2014

The data consists of daily evapotranspiration (ET) measurements/estimates for the time period June 1, 1995 to October 2014. These data are derived from (1) measurements of actual ET conducted at the USGS Blue Cypress marsh station (USGS station number 274143080424100) and (2) estimates of actual ET inferred from statistical regressions between the measurements of actual ET and potential ET. The station is located at a nearly flat wetlands site (27 degrees 41 minutes 43 seconds North / 080 degrees 42 minutes 41 seconds West) within the Blue Cypress Marsh Conservation Area, Indian River County, Florida. The dominant plant cover at the study site is sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense), with secondary amounts of other wetland plant species. Sawgrass height generally varies from 1.8 to 2.4 meters. The canopy can be temporarily removed through fire, followed by rapid re-growth. The soils at the site are peats. The water-table generally is above land surface but can be greater than a meter below land surface during droughts. Actual ET measurements derived using the eddy-covariance method are available for January 1, 2000 to September 1, 2005; and December 11, 2009 to October 20, 2014. The contribution of the present Data Release is dissemination of a dataset of actual ET estimates for a period prior to the first period of actual ET measurements (June 1, 1995 to December 31, 1999) and for the time interval between the two periods of actual ET measurement (September 2, 2005 to December 10, 2009). Estimates of actual ET during periods of missing actual ET measurements were obtained using regression-determined, monthly vegetation coefficient multipliers applied to potential ET data. The source of potential ET data was an existing Statewide database developed through an assimilation of satellite- and field-based meterological data. A seamless time series of measured and estimated actual ET for the period June 1, 1999 to December 10, 2014 is provided in this Data Release. Although the actual ET estimator performs relatively well (r-squared values of 0.85 and 0.95 for daily and monthly periods, respectively) in reproducing measured data, it should be noted that this degree of accuracy is not assured for non-measured time periods.