Growth response and soil-plant water relations of 4 dominant psammophyte species with soil moisture in central Inner Mongolia

Authors : Yuanrun ZHENG, Lianhe JIANG, Yong GAO, Xi CHEN, Geping LUO, Xianwei FENG, Hideyuki SHIMIZU

Pages : 325-333

Doi:10.3906/bot-1303-81

View : 16 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 0000-00-00

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Soil-plant water relations are crucial for understanding the mechanisms by which plants adapt to their environments. An experiment was conducted to understand the responses of 4 dominant psammophyte shrub species to different sandy environments. Pots were filled with tap water or sand, and pots planted with different species and filled with sand with and without pot covers were kept in 4 growth cabinets at 15/25 °C and with a water supply of 75 mm per month. Soil water content; dry weights of roots, shoots, and leaves; and leaf area were measured. The relative growth rate insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(0.039-0.042 g g-1 day-1); was higher for the 2 Artemisia Krasch. species and lower for Caragana korshinskii Kom. and Hedysarum laeve Maxim. insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(0.016-0.023 g g-1 d-1);. The final soil water content of the 2 Artemisia species insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1.3%-2.7%); was lower than that of H. laeve and C. korshinskii insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(14.7%-18.4%);. Soil water content increased from the top of the profile to deeper levels for H. laeve and C. korshinskii. However, for the 2 Artemisia species, soil water was lower in the deeper profile compared with the upper profile. Considering water consumption, the 2 Artemisia species were similar while C. korshinskii and H. laeve were similar; this result was different from our hypothesis.
Keywords : Key words Biomass allocation, growth, microlysimeter, semiarid regions, plant water relations