Global and regional estimates of daily evapotranspiration are essential to our understanding of the hydrologic cycle and climate change. In this study, we selected the radiation‐based Priestly‐Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT‐JPL) model and assessed it at a daily time scale by using 44 flux towers. These towers distributed in a wide range of ecological systems: croplands, deciduous broadleaf forest, evergreen broadleaf forest, evergreen needleleaf forest, grasslands, mixed forests, savannas, and shrublands. A regional land surface evapotranspiration model with a relatively simple structure, the PT‐JPL model largely uses ecophysiologically‐based formulation and parameters to relate potential evapotranspiration to actual evapotranspiration. The results using the original model indicate that the model always overestimates evapotranspiration in arid regions. This likely results from the misrepresentation of water limitation and energy partition in the model. By analyzing physiological processes and determining the sensitive parameters, we identified a series of parameter sets that can increase model performance. The model with optimized parameters showed better performance (R2 = 0.2–0.87; Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) = 0.1–0.87) at each site than the original model (R2 = 0.19–0.87; NSE = −12.14–0.85). The results of the optimization indicated that the parameter β (water control of soil evaporation) was much lower in arid regions than in relatively humid regions. Furthermore, the optimized value of parameter m1 (plant control of canopy transpiration) was mostly between 1 to 1.3, slightly lower than the original value. Also, the optimized parameter Topt correlated well to the actual environmental temperature at each site. We suggest that using optimized parameters with the PT‐JPL model could provide an efficient way to improve the model performance.

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Abstract. Based on direct measurements of half-hourly canopy evapotranspiration (ET; W m−2) using the eddy covariance (EC) system and daily soil evaporation (E; mm day−1) using microlysimeters over a crop ecosystem in arid northwestern China from 27 May to 14 September in 2013, a Bayesian method was used to simultaneously parameterize the soil surface and canopy resistances in the Shuttleworth–Wallace (S–W) model. Four of the six parameters showed relatively larger uncertainty reductions (> 50%), and their posterior distributions became approximately symmetric with distinctive modes. There was a moderately good agreement between measured and simulated values of half-hourly ET and daily E with a linear regression being y = 0.84 x + 0.18 (R2 = 0.83) and y = 1.01 x + 0.01 (R2 = 0.82), respectively. The causes of underestimations of ET by the S–W model was possibly attributed to the microscale advection, which can contribute an added energy in the form of downward sensible heat fluxes to the ET process. Therefore, the advection process should be taken into account in simulating ET in heterogeneous land surfaces. Also, underestimations were observed on or shortly after rainy days, which may be due to direct evaporation of liquid water intercepted in the canopy. Thus, the canopy interception model should be coupled to the S–W model in the long-term ET simulation.

Background Childhood obesity is reported to be associated with the risk of many diseases in adulthood. However, observational studies cannot fully account for confounding factors. We aimed to systematically assess the causal associations between childhood body mass index (BMI) and various adult traits/diseases using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR). Methods After data filtering, 263 adult traits genetically correlated with childhood BMI (P < 0.05) were subjected to MR analyses. Inverse-variance weighted, MR-Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode methods were used to estimate the causal effects. Multivariable MR analysis was performed to test whether the effects of childhood BMI on adult traits are independent from adult BMI. Results We identified potential causal effects of childhood obesity on 60 adult traits (27 disease-related traits, 27 lifestyle factors, and 6 other traits). Higher childhood BMI was associated with a reduced overall health rating (β = − 0.10, 95% CI − 0.13 to − 0.07, P = 6.26 × 10−11). Specifically, higher childhood BMI was associated with increased odds of coronary artery disease (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.11, P = 4.28 × 10−11), essential hypertension (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.16, P = 1.27 × 10−11), type 2 diabetes (OR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.30 to 1.43, P = 1.57 × 10−34), and arthrosis (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.12, P = 8.80 × 10−9). However, after accounting for adult BMI, the detrimental effects of childhood BMI on disease-related traits were no longer present (P > 0.05). For dietary habits, different from conventional understanding, we found that higher childhood BMI was associated with low calorie density food intake. However, this association might be specific to the UK Biobank population. Conclusions In summary, we provided a phenome-wide view of the effects of childhood BMI on adult traits. Multivariable MR analysis suggested that the associations between childhood BMI and increased risks of diseases in adulthood are likely attributed to individuals remaining obese in later life. Therefore, ensuring that childhood obesity does not persist into later life might be useful for reducing the detrimental effects of childhood obesity on adult diseases.

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