IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v164y2016ip2p281-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sources of water used by Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica trees based on stable isotope measurements in a semiarid sandy region of Northeast China

Author

Listed:
  • Song, Lining
  • Zhu, Jiaojun
  • Li, Mingcai
  • Zhang, Jinxin
  • Lv, Linyou

Abstract

Dieback of Mongolian pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) forests in the semiarid sandy region of northern China occurs when the trees are approximately 30–35 years old. Water deficit was the most important reason for this dieback, but the water sources used by pine trees are poorly understood. We aimed to identify the water sources utilized by pine trees and to explore the potential mechanisms inducing Mongolian pine dieback. The δD and δ18O of water in twig xylem, soil, rain and groundwater were analyzed in a 29-year-old pine stand during two consecutive years 2010 and 2011. Soil water content (SWC), tree transpiration and groundwater level were measured concurrently. The results demonstrated that trees utilized soil water in spring (April–May) and autumn (September–October). In contrast, trees used both soil water and groundwater in summer (June–August) during the two observed years. Additionally, 70.1% of water used by trees came from soil water when the SWC was high (6.6%), but 55.8% of water used by trees came from groundwater when the SWC was low (3.5%). The groundwater contribution to tree transpiration increased from 10.0% to 14.4% with the rainfall decreasing from 580mm to 460mm, with a mean value of 12.2%. However, in the year of 60% of the long-term annual rainfall, the mean SWC only was 2.7%. These findings indicate that groundwater was increasingly critical with decreasing rainfall. Groundwater should be thus the primary water source for the growth and survival of pine trees in the years of extreme low rainfall. The dieback of Mongolian pine forests occurred when the groundwater level declined suddenly in the years of extreme low rainfall.

Suggested Citation

  • Song, Lining & Zhu, Jiaojun & Li, Mingcai & Zhang, Jinxin & Lv, Linyou, 2016. "Sources of water used by Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica trees based on stable isotope measurements in a semiarid sandy region of Northeast China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 164(P2), pages 281-290.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:164:y:2016:i:p2:p:281-290
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2015.10.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415301372
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.10.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, X. & Zhu, J.J. & Yan, Q.L. & Song, L.N., 2012. "Effects of land use changes on the groundwater table and the decline of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantations in southern Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 94-106.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Ze & Liu, Yu & Qiu, Kaiyang & López-Vicente, Manuel & Shen, Weibo & Wu, Gao-Lin, 2021. "Soil-water deficit in deep soil layers results from the planted forest in a semi-arid sandy land: Implications for sustainable agroforestry water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    2. Dang, Hongzhong & Han, Hui & Chen, Shuai & Li, Mingyang, 2021. "A fragile soil moisture environment exacerbates the climate change-related impacts on the water use by Mongolian Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) in northern China: Long-term observations," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    3. Deng, Jifeng & Yao, Jiaqi & Zheng, Xiao & Gao, Guanglei, 2021. "Transpiration and canopy stomatal conductance dynamics of Mongolian pine plantations in semiarid deserts, Northern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xinhao Suo & Shixiong Cao, 2021. "China’s three north shelter forest program: cost–benefit analysis and policy implications," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(10), pages 14605-14618, October.
    2. Hou, Chenli & Tian, Delong & Xu, Bing & Ren, Jie & Hao, Lei & Chen, Ning & Li, Xianyue, 2021. "Use of the stable oxygen isotope method to evaluate the difference in water consumption and utilization strategy between alfalfa and maize fields in an arid shallow groundwater area," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    3. Huang, Ze & Liu, Yu & Qiu, Kaiyang & López-Vicente, Manuel & Shen, Weibo & Wu, Gao-Lin, 2021. "Soil-water deficit in deep soil layers results from the planted forest in a semi-arid sandy land: Implications for sustainable agroforestry water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    4. Weijia Liang & Quan Quan & Bohua Wu & Shuhong Mo, 2023. "Response of Vegetation Dynamics in the Three-North Region of China to Climate and Human Activities from 1982 to 2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Deng, Jifeng & Yao, Jiaqi & Zheng, Xiao & Gao, Guanglei, 2021. "Transpiration and canopy stomatal conductance dynamics of Mongolian pine plantations in semiarid deserts, Northern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    6. Dang, Hongzhong & Han, Hui & Chen, Shuai & Li, Mingyang, 2021. "A fragile soil moisture environment exacerbates the climate change-related impacts on the water use by Mongolian Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) in northern China: Long-term observations," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    7. Wu, Yao & Liu, Tingxi & Paredes, Paula & Duan, Limin & Pereira, Luis S., 2015. "Water use by a groundwater dependent maize in a semi-arid region of Inner Mongolia: Evapotranspiration partitioning and capillary rise," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 222-232.
    8. Song, Lining & Zhu, Jiaojun & Zhang, Ting & Wang, Kai & Wang, Guochen & Liu, Jianhua, 2021. "Higher canopy transpiration rates induced dieback in poplar (Populus × xiaozhuanica) plantations in a semiarid sandy region of Northeast China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    9. Deng, Jianqiang & Zhang, Zhixin & Liang, Zhiting & Li, Zhou & Yang, Xianlong & Wang, Zikui & Coulter, Jeffrey A. & Shen, Yuying, 2020. "Replacing summer fallow with annual forage improves crude protein productivity and water use efficiency of the summer fallow-winter wheat cropping system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    10. Li, Maona & Zhang, Yunlong & Ma, Chizhen & Sun, Hongren & Ren, Wei & Wang, Xianguo, 2023. "Maximizing the water productivity and economic returns of alfalfa by deficit irrigation in China: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    11. Yu Xiao & Gaodi Xie & Chunxia Lu & Changshun Zhang & Jie Xu & Jingya Liu & Keyu Qin & Yiqiu Li & Chaoxuan Xu & Caixia Zhang & Yangyang Wang & Shuang Gan & Jia Liu & Liqiang Ge, 2021. "Suggestions for Revegetation over the Next 30 Years Based on Precipitation in the Three North Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    12. Song, Lining & Zhu, Jiaojun & Zheng, Xiao & Li, Xinjunyan & Wang, Kai & Zhang, Jinxin & Wang, Guochen & Sun, Haihong, 2023. "Water use dynamics of trees in a Pinus tabuliformis plantation in semiarid sandy regions, Northeast China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    13. Zheng, Xiao & Zhu, Jiaojun & Xing, Zefeng, 2016. "Assessment of the effects of shelterbelts on crop yields at the regional scale in Northeast China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 49-60.
    14. Wang, Linlin & Xie, Junhong & Luo, Zhuzhu & Niu, Yining & Coulter, Jeffrey A. & Zhang, Renzhi & Lingling, Li, 2021. "Forage yield, water use efficiency, and soil fertility response to alfalfa growing age in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    15. Zihe, Liu & Guodong, Jia & Xinxiao, Yu & Weiwei, Lu & Libo, Sun & Yusong, Wang & Baheti, Zierdie, 2021. "Morphological trait as a determining factor for Populus simonii Carr. to survive from drought in semi-arid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:164:y:2016:i:p2:p:281-290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.