Variation of water use efficiency across seasons and years: Different role of herbaceous plants in desert ecosystem
Variation of water use efficiency across seasons and years: Different role of herbaceous plants in desert ecosystem
复制标题
水分利用效率随季节和年份的变化:草本植物在沙漠生态系统中的不同作用
DOI:
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.035
复制
发表时间:
2019
影响因子:
9.8
通讯作者:
Cieraad Ellen
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Liu Ran;Li Yan;Wang Yugang;Ma Jie;Cieraad Ellen
Desert ecosystems often structured in two distinct layers of woody and herbaceous plants. Changes in community composition alter the fractional coverage by bare soil, woody and herbaceous plants, with potential effects on water and carbon fluxes. We used eddy covariance measurements and chamber method in two similar shrub-dominated desert communities (Tamarixcommunity andHaloxyloncommunity) to assess inter- and intra-annual variations of ecosystem water use efficiency (EWUE) (where we distinguished whole ecosystem EWUE as EWUEE, and EWUE of shrub and herbaceous layers as EWUEShruband EWUEHerb) in central Asia. In theTamarixcommunity, 11 years of carbon and water fluxes showed that years with larger herbaceous cover (referred to as shrub-herb years) had significant higher EWUEEthan years with lower herbaceous cover (referred to as shrub years), with the values of 1.07 ± 0.11 vs. 0.68 ± 0.03 g C/kg H2O. There was a significant positive correlation between EWUEEand the maximum herbaceous plants cover. In theHaloxyloncommunity, chamber measurements during a shrub year demonstrated that the shrub layer contributed most to the gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and evapotranspiration (ET) of the system, with the herbaceous layer contributing around 30% at the beginning of the growing season, and decreasing to nearly zero during the middle and at the end of the growing season. The shrub layer EWUEShrubwas significant higher than that in the herbaceous layer (EWUEHerb) throughout the growing season (1.82 ± 0.11 vs. 1.06 ± 0.32 g C/kg H2O). EWUEShrubwas positively correlated with EWUEE, but there was no relationship between EWUEHerband EWUEEin a shrub year. This study shows that the variability of the herbaceous layer across seasons and years in these desert ecosystems is crucial for predicting water and carbon cycling under ongoing and projected climatic change scenarios in shrub-dominated desert ecosystems.