Abstract: Anhui is one of the agricultural provinces in China, and the management and utilization of water resources directly affect the sustainable development of agriculture. It is of great significance to analyze the changes of evapotranspiration in Anhui Province, which rationally allocates water resources and rational use. Based on MOD16 data, the spatio-temporal variations of surface evapotranspiration in Anhui Province from 2000 to 2014 were studied by using the method of mean, standard deviation method, bias analysis, trend analysis and spatial variation analysis. Besides, the variation characteristics of evapotranspiration under different land use types were analyzed. The results showed that: 1) the annual average evapotranspiration was 694.9 mm during 2000-2014, and the annual mean value of surface evapotranspiration fluctuated from 647.5 to 730.5 mm, and interannual changes showed a downward trend, and it had strong spatial distribution, with the trend of higher in the south and lower in the northern part of the Province. There were significant differences in the annual evapotranspiration of each city, and the highest evapotranspiration in Huangshan was 844.1 mm, while the lowest was 603.7 mm in Suzhou. 2) The variations of monthly evapotranspiration in Anhui province showed the trend of “single peak”, and there were obvious seasonal differences, the magnitude of the evapotranspiration in the season was: summer(304.17 mm)> spring(167.56 mm)> autumn(150.41 mm)> winter(73.92 mm). The evapotranspiration of the cities in the south of Huaihe River showed a trend of “single peak ”, while the north of the Huaihe River was a typical “bimodal peak” trend. 3) The evapotranspiration varied for different land use types in Anhui Province, and the annual evapotranspiration was decreased according to the order of “forest land> grassland> unused land> cultivated land> residential land”.
Key words：MOD16; Anhui Province; evapotranspiration; temporal and spatial distribution; land use type