Premium
WATER UTILIZATION OF NATURAL AND PLANTED TREES IN THE SEMIARID DESERT OF INNER MONGOLIA, CHINA
Author(s) -
Ohte Nobuhito,
Koba Keisuke,
Yoshikawa Ken,
Sugimoto Atsuko,
Matsuo Naoko,
Kabeya Naoki,
Wang Linhe
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
ecological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.864
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-5582
pISSN - 1051-0761
DOI - 10.1890/1051-0761(2003)013[0337:wuonap]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - inner mongolia , desert (philosophy) , china , natural (archaeology) , ecology , agroforestry , geography , natural regeneration , environmental science , biology , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology
We used stable isotope techniques to investigate water utilization of two native trees, Sabina vulgaris Ant. and Artemisia ordosica Krasch., and one introduced tree, Salix matsudana Koidz., in the semiarid Mu‐Us desert, Inner Mongolia, China. The study site was in a region where there has been a decline in agricultural productivity, caused by severe desertification over the past several decades. S. matsudana is used extensively for reforestation to protect farms and cultivated lands from shifting sand dunes. We identified water sources for each tree species by comparing the stable isotopes δD and δ 18 O in water in stems, soil, and groundwater. We also measured δ 13 C levels in leaves to evaluate the intrinsic water‐use efficiency (WUE) of each plant. Comparison of isotopes showed that S. vulgaris and S. matsudana consume relatively deep soil water as well as groundwater, whereas A. ordosica uses only shallow soil water. The δ 13 C measurements indicated that S. vulgaris has exclusively high WUE, whereas that of the other species was typical of temperate‐region C 3 plants. The water source data plus WUE data suggest that planted S. matsudana uses groundwater freely, whereas native plants conserve water. Thus, reforestation with S. matsudana might cause irreversible groundwater shortages. Corresponding Editor: E. A. Holland.