Larger water use efficiency associated with greater dependence on deep water sources in hot-dry valleys with reservoirs

Abstract

Identifying the carbon–water relationship of plants helps to understand their adaptive water use strategies. The relationship between WUE and the water source remains uncertain in the hot-dry valleys with reservoirs. The leaf δ13C and soil and xylem water isotopes (δ2H and δ18O) were determined to identify the WUE and water source contributions, respectively, in Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit communities. We propose a source contributing score (SCS), calculated as a value for the contribution of water from different soil layers (a higher SCS value indicates plants use deeper water sources). The positive relationship between leaf δ13C and SCS (R2 = 0.16, P = 0.022) and the negative relationship between leaf δ13C and topsoil contribution (R2 = 0.21, P = 0.009) confirmed the close association of larger WUE with less reliance on shallow soil water. The redundancy analysis suggested a stronger connection between leaf δ13C and d-excess than leaf δ13C and topsoil moisture content, which emphasized the key role of soil moisture d-excess. Variation partitioning analysis (VPA) suggested soil properties and microclimate explain more than 89.8 % of the variations in tree water use. VPA also suggested different roles of microclimate and soil properties in explaining tree water use strategies. Findings broadened the understanding of the relationship between WUE and water sources and emphasized the key role of soil moisture d-excess in hot-dry valleys with reservoirs.