Abstract
Understanding species-specific changes in water-use patterns under recent climate scenarios is necessary to predict accurately the responses of seasonally dry ecosystems to future climate. In this study, we conducted a precipitation manipulation experiment to investigate the changes in water-use patterns of two coexisting species (Achnatherum splendens and Allium tanguticum) to alterations in soil water content (SWC) resulting from increased and decreased rainfall treatments. The results showed that the leaf water potential (Ψ) of A. splendens and A. tanguticum responded to changes in shallow and middle SWC at both the control and treatment plots. However, A. splendens proportionally extracted water from the shallow soil layer (0–10cm) when it was available but shifted to absorbing deep soil water (30–60 cm) during drought. By contrast, the A. tanguticum did not differ significantly in uptake depth between treatment and control plots but entirely depended on water from shallow soil layers. The flexible water-use patterns of A.splendens may be a key factor facilitating its dominance and it better acclimates the recent climate change in the alpine grassland community around Qinghai Lake.
Highlights
Water, disturbance, and edaphic factors determine the species distribution, composition, and productivity of arid and semiarid regions [1,2,3]
Variations in soil water content (SWC) at the control and treatment plots. In both the control and treatment plots, shallow SWC showed greater fluctuations compared with the middle and deep SWC owing to direct water input and evaporation effects (Fig 2)
A. splendens Cp and Cm increased after precipitation and irrigation water input in 2014; when little rainfall fell during late July, 2013, C in this species steadily declined with the decrease in shallow SWC and significantly correlated with shallow SWC (Table 3)
Summary
Disturbance, and edaphic factors determine the species distribution, composition, and productivity of arid and semiarid regions [1,2,3]. Coexisting plant’s water use patterns in an alpine grassland community. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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