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Water use sources of desert riparian Populus euphratica forests

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Abstract

Desert riparian forests are the main body of natural oases in the lower reaches of inland rivers; its growth and distribution are closely related to water use sources. However, how does the desert riparian forest obtains a stable water source and which water sources it uses to effectively avoid or overcome water stress to survive? This paper describes an analysis of the water sources, using the stable oxygen isotope technique and the linear mixed model of the isotopic values and of desert riparian Populus euphratica forests growing at sites with different groundwater depths and conditions. The results showed that the main water source of Populus euphratica changes from water in a single soil layer or groundwater to deep subsoil water and groundwater as the depth of groundwater increases. This appears to be an adaptive selection to arid and water-deficient conditions and is a primary reason for the long-term survival of P. euphratica in the desert riparian forest of an extremely arid region. Water contributions from the various soil layers and from groundwater differed and the desert riparian P. euphratica forests in different habitats had dissimilar water use strategies.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Major Research Plan (91025024), Key Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-04-05) and the ‘Western Light’ Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alashan Desert Ecohydrology Experimental Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Jianhua Si, Qi Feng, Tengfei Yu & Chunyan Zhao

  2. College of Life and Geographic Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, 810008, China

    Shengkui Cao

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  1. Jianhua Si
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  2. Qi Feng
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  3. Shengkui Cao
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  4. Tengfei Yu
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  5. Chunyan Zhao
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Correspondence to Jianhua Si.

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Si, J., Feng, Q., Cao, S. et al. Water use sources of desert riparian Populus euphratica forests. Environ Monit Assess 186, 5469–5477 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3796-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3796-4

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