As the only connecting term between water and energy balance, evapotranspiration is the best indicator for the response behavior of transport of water vapor and latent heat as well as hydrological course and the terrestrial ecosystems associated with climate change12. Along with significantly increasing near-surface air temperatures, decreasing pan evaporation (ETpan), potential evapotranspiration (ETp) and reference evapotranspiration (ET0) have been reported in many regions worldwide and continuously documented by many studies since the first publication by Peterson et al. in 19953. This phenomenon has been denoted as the “evaporation paradox”4. However, the interpretations for this phenomenon by different scholars are various in different regions, mainly including the following: (1) decreasing ETp or ET0 may actually be a strong indication of increasing terrestrial evaporation due to the complementary relationship between the actual evaporation and potential evaporation56789; (2) positive effect on evapotranspiration of increasing temperature could be offset by widespread “dimming” and “stilling” phenomena due to the fact that evaporative process is also primarily driven by radiative and aerodynamic components41011.