Trend In Water Use Efficiency Research Articles

Assessing the spatiotemporal dynamics of water and carbon fluxes in subtropical forest of Xin’an River Basin using an improved Biome-BGC model

Extreme climate occurred frequently in subtropical region, which seriously affects carbon and water fluxes such as evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) of terrestrial ecosystems. The process-based biome biogeochemical cycles (Biome-BGC) model is widely used for simulating carbon and water fluxes of forest ecosystems. However, the lack of the interaction information of climate, vegetation and soil, such as the hysteresis effect, canopy stratification on photosynthesis, impedes better simulations of the ecohydrological processes. Here, we tended to improve the simulation accuracy of Biome-BGC model at a subtropical forest on the Xin’an River in Southeastern China by reconstructing the precipitation series, modifying the ET and canopy multilayers modules, and optimizing the parameters. The spatiotemporal patterns of GPP, ET, water use efficiency (WUE) and their response to environmental factors across the Xin’an River Basin from 1982 to 2018 were further explored. The results showed that the improved model performed well, with the determination coefficient, root means square error and mean absolute error being 0.730, 1.522 gC/m2/d and 1.218 gC/m2/d for GPP, 0.857, 1.082 mm/d and 0.838 mm/d for ET, respectively. Basin-averaged GPP, ET and WUE increased during 1982–2018 and these increasing trends were more pronounced during 1999–2018. Significant positive trends of WUE occurred in the northeast corner. The increasing air temperature and precipitation respectively dominated the increase in GPP and ET, the increasing CO2 concentration and NDVI mitigated the negative effect of extreme precipitation on WUE. Given that human activities such as afforestation have effectively reduced the extent of damage to forest ecosystems from extreme precipitation, we highlight an urgent need to formulate adaptation strategies aimed at reducing the risk of extreme climate in humid regions.

Nitrogen deposition alters drought-induced changes in biomass and nonstructural carbohydrates allocation patterns of Quercus mongolica seedlings

Water and nitrogen (N) are major constraints that affect plant growth and survival. N deposition can enhance plant photosynthetic capacity and drought tolerance. However, the ecophysiological processes of plants in response to N deposition associated with drought stress are unclear. We investigated the allocation patterns of biomass and nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) among different organs in response to the addition of ammonium nitrate in Mongolian oak seedlings along a drought stress gradient. This study used pot experiment with three levels of N addition (CK: 0, LN: 5 and HN: 10 g N m−2 yr−1) in conjunction with three irrigated water volumes (W0: 36 L, W1: 25 L, reduction 30%, and W2: 18 L, reduction 50 %). The results showed drought stress, resulting in a decreasing trend in photosynthesis, had been reversed by N addition, and trends in water use efficiency also appeared to increase. Similarly, drought caused a decreasing trend in the biomass and the decreases in the ratio of root-to-shoot (R:S) and total biomass at the whole-seedling level. The enhancements in aboveground biomass were induced by N addition regardless of water conditions. Adversely, root biomass appeared to decrease under normal water conditions (W0) and increased under drought stress. In addition, leaf soluble sugar (SS) concentration and leaf SS: starch increased with N addition under W0 and decreased under severe drought (W2). When water and N availability were abundant, the carbon (C) use strategy of Mongolian oak seedlings focused on aboveground growth to get more carbohydrates. However, when water availability was in severe deficit, the C use strategy of seedlings shifted from growth to protection and defense by restoring more carbohydrates in stems or roots to survive the harsh environments, even when N availability was adequate. This study provided new insights into the understanding of C use strategy and drought survival mechanism in response to environmental change.

Spatial variations and mechanisms for the stability of water use efficiency in China.

A clearer understanding of the stability of water use efficiency (WUE) and its driving factors contributes to improving water use efficiency and strengthening water resource management. However, the stability of WUE is unclear. Based on the EEMD method, this study analyses the spatial variations and mechanisms for the stability of WUE in China, especially in the National Forest Protection Project (NFPP) areas. It is found that the stable WUE was dominated by non-significant trends and increasing trends in China, accounting for 33.59% and 34.19%, respectively. The non-significant trend of stable WUE was mainly located in the Three-North shelterbelt program area, and the increasing trend of stable WUE was in Huaihe and Taihu, Taihang Mountains, and Pearl River shelterbelt program areas. Precipitation and soil moisture promoted the stable WUE in these project areas. The unstable WUE was dominated by positive reversals or negative reversals of WUE trends. The positive reversals of unstable WUE were mainly located in the Yellow River shelterbelt program areas, which was promoted by temperature and radiation, while the negative reversals of unstable WUE were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River and Liaohe shelterbelt program areas, which were mainly induced by saturation water vapor pressure difference (VPD). Our results highlight that some ecological restoration programs need to be improved to cope with the negative climate impact on the stability of WUE.

Decoupling crop production from water consumption at some irrigation schemes in southern Africa

Improving crop productivity is crucial to food security and rural livelihoods in southern Africa. However, agricultural intensification at irrigation schemes may place greater demands on water resources, even where water use efficiency (WUE) is improved, due to the paradox of irrigation efficiency. We analysed trends in water use efficiency (WUE), Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), evapotranspiration (ET), evaporation (E), and transpiration (T) at six irrigation schemes which received technological and social interventions. GPP was decoupled from ET at some schemes. For example, at the Landela sub-block of the Silalatshani irrigation scheme in Zimbabwe, GPP and T increased at 4.8% and 4.6% per year, respectively. Conversely, E decreased at 13.5% per year, giving a 3.6% decrease in ET per year from 2013 to 2021. This suggests that crop production can be decoupled from water consumption at southern African irrigation schemes, meaning it is possible to produce more food with less water.

The responses of ecosystem water use efficiency to CO2, nitrogen deposition, and climatic drivers across China

The responses of ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) to environmental perturbations are non-linearly dependent on how strongly coupled are water and carbon cycling. Here, we evaluate the structure of these non-linearities using two high-fidelity explainable machine learning (XML) models to disentangle the confounding effects of the air temperature (Ta), precipitation (PR), downward shortwave radiation (SR), atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca), and nitrogen deposition (Ndep) on WUE. The findings suggest that mean annual PR plays a dominant role in shaping the spatial pattern of WUE. Spatially, WUE responded positively to PR and Ca but negatively to Ta and SR, while Ndep had little impact on WUE. For temporal trends, the spatial pattern of the mean annual WUE determined the spatial pattern of the WUE trend. Furthermore, the spatial patterns of the Ndep and Ca trends also contributed substantially to the spatial pattern of the WUE trend. Notably, the WUE and Ca trends exhibited negative correlations, while the WUE and Ndep trends showed positive or negative correlations depending on the different nutrient constraints on vegetation. The WUE growth rate responded negatively to SR in both spatial patterns and temporal trends. Additionally, using the trend of 0.077 K yr−1 and 0 mm yr−1 as the threshold, the trends of Ta and PR shifted from positive to negative relationships on WUE growth. Our results help identify key sensitivities and thresholds in WUE to environmental controls over space and time.

Identifying the Responses of Vegetation Gross Primary Productivity and Water Use Efficiency to Climate Change under Different Aridity Gradients across China

Despite the fact that gross primary productivity (GPP) and water use efficiency (WUE) have been widely used as indicators to evaluate the water-carbon cycle, uncertainties exist in the patterns of GPP and WUE responses to climate variability along different aridity gradients. In this study, the aridity index was used to divide China into four arid-humid zones. The spatiotemporal variability of multiple vegetation types GPP and WUE in response to climate change under different arid-humid zones were investigated based on remote sensing data. The results indicated that the increasing trend of WUE in the four arid-humid zones of China was less pronounced than GPP from 2001 to 2021. The GPP value decreased gradually from the humid to the arid zone, and the WUE value in the arid zone was slightly higher than in the semi-arid zone. The GPP of all vegetation types in China showed a tendency to increase, while shrubland and wetland WUE tended to decrease. The major vegetation types (e.g., forest, cropland and grassland) in each aridity gradient contributed to the changes in local GPP and WUE. However, in individual arid-humid zones, wetland and shrubland also exhibited high GPP and WUE values that were not inferior to forest and cropland. Temperature and precipitation were the main climatic factors responsible for the increase in vegetation GPP in different aridity gradients, with a higher positive correlation for temperature than precipitation. WUE showed a distinct positive and negative correlation with the thermal factors (temperature and net radiation) and the moisture factors (precipitation and relative humidity); this pattern was more pronounced in the humid and semi-humid zones. Net radiation and precipitation may be the main climatic factors causing a slight upward trend in WUE across the arid-humid zones, while the decrease in shrubland and wetland WUE may be related to relative humidity and precipitation.

Differences in the patterns and mechanisms of leaf and ecosystem-scale water use efficiencies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Water use efficiency (WUE) can be employed to characterize the carbon and water cycle of ecosystems. However, little is known about spatial differences in WUE at the leaf (WUELeaf) and ecosystem (WUEEco) scales regarding their responses to environmental variables and elevation (ELE). To understand the underlying drivers of this difference, we obtained the WUELeaf from carbon isotope composition of leaves from previously published reports and our own measurements from the Tibetan Plateau and calculated WUEEco using remote sensing method. The results suggested that the WUE showed different patterns at different scales. Along the elevation gradients, opposite trends of WUE in leaf and ecosystem scales were observed. In the altitude interval of 2000–6000 m a.s.l., WUELeaf increased significantly when the altitude was greater than 3500 m, while WUEEco decreased significantly when the altitude was greater than 4500 m. Specifically, the highest WUELeaf was observed in grasses (10.91 ± 3.34 mmol/mol) in the northwest, while the highest WUEEco existed in forests (1.18 ± 0.57 g C/kg H2O) in the southeast. The most important parameters for the variations of WUELeaf and WUEEco were the climate and vegetation, respectively. The variation of WUE along elevation was not caused by the direct influence of vegetation type, although the WUEs of different vegetations varied. Instead, the interaction between environment and vegetation contributed to the ELE effect on WUE for both scales. These results indicated that the proper scale of WUE for carbon–water coupling research should be selected according to the specific purpose.

Climate and management impacts on the spatiotemporal dynamics of water-carbon fluxes in the North China Plain

Evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary production (GPP) over agroecosystems could be noticeably altered by climate change and human activities. A better understanding of the impacts on water-carbon interactions and the underlying mechanisms, are crucial to improve water use efficiency (WUE). Comparing to 23 site-years of observations, regional ET dataset and statistical yields, the Remote Sensing-based cropland Ecohydrological Model (ReSEM) was validated to estimate the spatiotemporal dynamics of ET, GPP and WUE for dryland agroecosystems in the North China Plain (NCP) from 2001 to 2018. Spatially, the distributions of mean annual ET, GPP and WUE were comparable which changed obviously in different climatic conditions while varied slightly between various irrigation areas. The significantly increased WUE occurred in 38.6 % cropland, mainly located in the humid south regions with less irrigation requirement and the central sub-humid areas along the Yellow River with access to surface irrigation. The averaged increasing trend of WUE in the heavily irrigated semi-arid areas was relatively low. The temporal dynamic of regional mean WUE indicated a significantly increased rate of 0.026 gC kg−1H2O per year during 2001–2018. The spatiotemporal trends of WUE were mainly resulted from the significantly increased GPP rather than ET. The experimental simulations demonstrated that agricultural management dominated the interannual trend of WUE, whose relative contribution (79.5 %) was obviously larger than that of air CO2 concentration (40.2 %) and climate variable change (−19.7 %). Besides, the effects of agricultural management on WUE were further divided based on the classified six cropping systems, 82.4 % of which was attributed to the management of winter wheat-summer maize rotation system. This study sheds light on the improvement of WUE for dryland agroecosystem under changing environments and highlights the dominant impact of agricultural management.

Vegetation restoration dominates increase in water use efficiency in drylands of China

Dryland ecosystems are crucial components within the Earth and atmospheric systems, and a number of projects have been implemented to restore vegetation in drylands in the recent years. However, these regions are experiencing extreme climatic changes, and the impact of these projects are unclear. To gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of these projects, we employed water use efficiency (WUE), the ratio of gross primary production (GPP) to terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET), to predict future dryland ecosystem dynamics, and detected the underlying causes of WUE changes. We analysed the WUE trends and the decomposed components of WUE, namely the GPP to plant transportation ratio (GPP/T) and the plant transportation to terrestrial evapotranspiration (T/ET) ratio, between 2003 and 2018 in China’s drylands. The results indicated that 70.3 % of the study area had an upward WUE trend, and T/ET was the dominant factor of the WUE trend in 74.9 % of the areas investigated. Furthermore, the increase in T/ET was associated with growth in leaf area index (LAI). The rising WUE rate in the vegetation restoration project areas was significantly higher than that in other areas along with the drought gradient (P < 0.05), which indicated WUE increasing was strongly influenced by the increase in LAI resulting from vegetation restoration. Thus, our research affirms that vegetation restoration greatly influences WUE increase. However, over time, WUE in these restored drylands is likely to decrease due to increased VPD and plantation saturation, so future strategies for vegetation restoration in drylands are therefore required.

Contributory factors of the secular trends to changes in ecosystem water-use efficiency in China

Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) is an effective indicator of ecosystem functioning, which is widely used to characterize the coupling relationship between terrestrial carbon and the water cycle. Although the linear trends in WUE have been well reported, the nonlinearity of the secular trends in WUE and their relative contribution to the overall changes were still poorly investigated. In this study, we used ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) to extract the secular trends of the WUE and their relative contribution (RC) to the WUE changes in China, which represents the stability of the ecosystem functioning. We found that although increasing trends dominated the secular trends of the WUE, nearly half of the study areas had experienced trend shifts. Except that deciduous forests and mixed forests were dominated by trend shifts, most of the land cover types were dominated by increasing trends. The RC exhibited a bimodal pattern along the elevation gradient, with peaks at 20 m and 5000 m. Similarly, the RC peaked at the east and south aspects, and was the lowest for the west and north aspects. In comparison, the RC exhibited a U-shaped pattern with the slope, and was the lowest at 80°. For the monotonically increasing trends and decreasing-to-increasing trends, the high RC mainly occurred on the North China Plain and Loess Plateau, indicating ecosystem improvement and strong stability. Meanwhile, it was low in northeastern China and southwestern China, indicating unsustainableecosystem improvement. The RC was always very low for increasing-to-decreasing trends and monotonically decreasing trends, indicating low ecosystem stability with a high possibility for improvement. Temperature and the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration were the two main climatic factors driving the WUE changes. The climatic mean state rather than the climatic variability affected the ecosystem stability. The results of this study highlight the relative contribution of the secular trends to WUE changes and provide a better understanding of the structure and the stability of ecosystem functioning.

Recent Seasonal Variations in Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency in China's Key Tropical‐Subtropical Transitional Zones in Response to Climate Change

AbstractUnderstanding the response of terrestrial ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) to climate change is critical to accurately represent the carbon‐water cycle processes. However, how WUE dynamics are evolving under seasonal climate variations and biome‐specific characteristics remains still unclear. In this study, we integrated two state‐of‐the‐art retrieval algorithms to estimate gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) from satellite MODIS records. Such metrics served as input to quantify ecosystem WUE, expressed as the ratio of GPP to ET, and explore its dynamics during the dry and wet season from 2001 to 2018 in China's key tropical to subtropical transitional zones, that is, Yunnan Province. Results show large spatial and seasonal variability in WUE over the observational period. During the dry season, the increasing trends in GPP and ET have led to contrasting WUE patterns in forest and non‐forest biomes, leading to positive and negative WUE trends, respectively. During the wet season, the declining trends in GPP occurring in combination with opposite trends in ET, have caused decreasing WUE consistently across all biomes except croplands, likely further modulated by human factors. The observed changes in WUE appear primarily driven by variations in air temperature (Ta) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) during both dry and wet seasons. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of the carbon‐water interplay in tropical‐subtropical transitional zones and provide new insights to improve our capacity to predict the terrestrial ecosystem's response to climate change.

Hourly water-carbon interactions modulate decadal water-use efficiency trends inferred from ecosystem-scale measurements

Plant stomatal conductance regulates photosynthesis and transpiration. This physiological link affects ecosystem responses to microclimate and harmonizes carbon, energy, and water exchanges between the biosphere and atmosphere. The relationship between water losses via transpiration and carbon gains via photosynthesis can be quantified by plant water-use efficiency (WUE). While leaf- and ecosystem-scale observations both suggest rising WUE in recent decades, WUE trends inferred from the ecosystem scale are much larger than those inferred from the leaf scale or implied by theory. The unexpectedly large ecosystem-scale WUE trends complicate interpretation of ecophysiological responses to changing environmental conditions. Here, we analyze ecosystem-scale WUE inferred from 40 FLUXNET sites, each with at least 10 years of measurements. Our results demonstrate that observed ecosystem-scale WUE trends are more sensitive to hourly weather conditions than longer-term changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide or vapor pressure deficit. Our analysis shows that Earth System Models participating in CMIP6 did not capture the observed WUE sensitivity to inter-site variability and microclimatic conditions. Collectively, our findings suggest that ecosystem-scale WUE trends reflect water-carbon interactions across multiple temporal scales, and disentangling factors contributing to emergent ecosystem responses is needed to infer ecophysiological relationships and model structures from observations.

Contributions of Climate Change, Vegetation Growth, and Elevated Atmospheric CO2 Concentration to Variation in Water Use Efficiency in Subtropical China

Ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) plays an important role in maintaining the carbon assimilation–water transpiration balance in ecosystems. However, spatiotemporal changes in WUE in the subtropical region of China (STC) and the impact of driving forces remain unclear. In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal variation in WUE in the STC and used ridge regression combined with path analysis to identify direct and indirect effects of climate change, vegetation growth, and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca) on the interannual trend in WUE. We then quantified the actual and relative contributions of these drivers to WUE change based on the sensitivity of these variables on WUE and the trends of the variables themselves. Results reveal a mean WUE of 1.57 g C/m2/mm in the STC. The annual WUE series showed a descending trend with a decline rate of 0.0006 g C/m2/mm/year. The annual average temperature (MAT) and leaf area index (LAI) had strong positive direct effects on the WUE, while the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) had a strong negative direct effect. Opposite direct and indirect effects offset each other, but overall there was a total positive effect of Ca and VPD on WUE. In terms of actual contribution, LAI, Ca, and VPD were the main driving factors; LAI caused WUE to increase by 0.0026 g C/m2/mm/year, while Ca and VPD caused WUE to decrease by 0.0021 and 0.0012 g C/m2/mm/year, respectively. In terms of relative contribution, LAI dominated the WUE trend, although Ca and VPD were also important factors. Other drivers contributed less to the WUE trend. The results of this study have implications for ecological management and restoration under environmental climate change conditions in subtropical regions worldwide.

Contrasting Trends in Water Use Efficiency of the Alpine Grassland in Tibetan Plateau

AbstractAlpine grassland is the dominant land cover type of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Previous studies suggested that TP's climate and vegetation condition have changed substantially in past few decades. However, the impacts of such changes on ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE), a vital index for depicting the tradeoff between water loss and carbon gain, of alpine grassland remain poorly understood. This study used a water‐carbon coupled model, Penman‐Monteith‐Leuning Version 2 (PML_V2), to investigate the variation in WUE of alpine grassland in the TP during 1982–2016 and its drivers. PML_V2 performs well in estimating WUE at nine eddy‐covariance flux sites, noticeably better than other main‐stream products. The long‐term mean WUE decreases from the southeastern to the northwestern TP, generally following the spatial pattens of surface greenness and climatic condition. During 1982–2016, WUE increased in most parts (71%) of alpine grassland but declined in certain regions of western TP. At the ecosystem scale, contrasting trends in WUE emerged between alpine meadow and alpine steppe over the last 35 years. The former's significant increasing WUE was primarily driven by increased leaf area index (LAI) and CO2 concentration (eCO2). While greening also occurred in the latter, its WUE remained stable because (a) the large negative effect of precipitation offset the positive effect of LAI on WUE, and; (b) the enhancement of photosynthesis resulted from elevated eCO2 was weaker because of low LAI. Our results are of importance for understanding the dynamics and mechanisms of water‐carbon coupling in high‐elevation ecosystems under a changing climate.

Remote sensing of water use efficiency in Southwest China's karst area.

As the largest contiguous karst area in China, the southwestern karst area is a typical ecologically fragile area affecting local vegetation dynamics. Ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) is an important factor reflecting the ability of vegetation to produce organic matter with a limited water supply. Therefore, determining the WUE variation trends in this ecologically fragile region is important. In this paper, we used MODIS remote sensing datasets, meteorological data, and land cover data to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in vegetation water use efficiency in the southwestern karst region from 2001 to 2017. We also further quantitatively analyzed the effects of climate change and human activities on the spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation WUE in the study area. The main conclusions were as follows. (1) From 2001 to 2017, in terms of temporal characteristics, the interannual variation in WUE fluctuated greatly, ranging from 1.33 to 1.51g C kg-1 H2O, with a multiyear average of 1.43g C kg-1 H2O and an average rate of change of - 0.0046g C kg-1 H2O year-1. In terms of spatial characteristics, areas with a higher WUE were concentrated in central Sichuan and northeastern Yunnan. (2) The annual average WUE of each vegetation type decreased in the following order: evergreen coniferous forest > evergreen broad-leaved forest > mixed forest > deciduous broad-leaved forest > cultivated land > deciduous coniferous forest > grassland > cultivated land and natural vegetation > shrub forest. (3) The vegetation WUE of 70.66% in this area was positively correlated with temperature. Additionally, 79.68% of the vegetation WUE was negatively correlated with precipitation. The relative contribution rates of climate change and human activities to the change trend in WUE were 15% and 85%, respectively. Compared with WUE results in other studies, the WUE of different karst landform areas obtained in this study was quite different, indicating that the geological and landform features of the karst area are complex. Our study provides scientific support for local vegetation restoration and protection policies and promotes the understanding of the principle of the carbon-water cycle in karst areas.

Determining the Contributions of Vegetation and Climate Change to Ecosystem WUE Variation over the Last Two Decades on the Loess Plateau, China

Exploring the variations in the water use efficiency (WUE) is helpful in gaining an in-depth understanding of the regional carbon and water cycles on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). Here, we employed the spatial variations in the WUE and the quantitative contributions of the influencing factors, including the precipitation (P), temperature (Temp), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), sunshine duration (SD), and leaf area index (LAI), with the drought index varying over the last two decades. Results showed that the multiyear average WUE decreased significantly as the drought index increased for all of the vegetation types. Per-pixel interannual variability of WUE trend was 0.024 gC·m−2·mm−1·year−1. As the drought index increased, the WUE initially increased and then decreased for the forests, grassland, and shrubland, and their peaks occurred at drought index values of 2.60–3.10. Among the influencing factors, the WUE was predominantly controlled by the LAI, with an impact and relative contribution of 0.014 gC·m−2·mm−1·year−1 and 58.3%, respectively. The P and SD contributed the least to the trend in WUE, and impact and relative contribution of both were 0.001 gC·m−2·mm−1·year−1 and 4.17%. Our study also demonstrated that the LAI was the dominant factor affecting the WUE trends for grassland and the Yan River due to the structural parameters and geographical location. In addition, the impact and relative contribution of the residual factors on the WUE trend were 0.004 gC·m−2·mm−1·year−1 and 16.7%. Our findings suggested that comprehensive effects such as micro-geomorphic changes and nitrogen deposition could not be ignored except for vegetation and climate change. This study will clarify the spatial and temporal evolution of WUE and its influence mechanism.

Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency in the Three-North Region of China Based on Long-Term Satellite Data

Water use efficiency (WUE), given by the ratio between organic matter production and water consumption, could be considered as a very important ecological indicator for assessing vegetation system growth conditions by combining organic matter production and water consumption. It is especially important for regional vegetation sustainable management by creating enough organic matter with restricted water supply. Furthermore, proper analysis of WUE is vital for the evaluation and future plans of ecological restoration projects in ecologically fragile regions such as the Three-North region of China. In this study, ecosystem WUE across the Three-North region of China from 2001 to 2017 was obtained, and the variation trends and major influencing factors were also analyzed. The results demonstrated that (1) the average WUE across the Three-North region of China is 0.7376 g∙C∙m−2∙mm−1 with an annual increase of 0.002 g∙C∙m−2∙mm−1∙y−1; (2) the spatiotemporal variation trends of WUE are similar to those of gross primary production (GPP); and (3) in the southeastern parts of the Three-North region, the vegetation conditions are better with sustainable improvements, while in Xinjiang Province, the sustainable degradation areas are widely spread. The results of this research reveal large spatial heterogeneity of WUE, with high WUE mainly in the southeastern region with sufficient precipitation and afforestation programs. For those areas far away from this region, WUE is not satisfactory, suggesting that, for a sustainable vegetation growth, it is important to consider the water supply to maintain suitable vegetation cover. Furthermore, the results of this research are important for future ecological restoration and sustainable management of environment.

Does actual cropland water consumption change with evaporation potential in the Lower Yellow River?

The North China Plain (NCP) is one of the most important regions for food production in China; however, the typical winter wheat–summer maize cropping system has created a continuous decline in groundwater levels, triggering serious ecological problems. Additionally, changes in the evaporation potential in the NCP have altered from decreasing to sharply increasing. Therefore, it is critical to understand the actual cropland water consumption (i.e., the actual evapotranspiration, AET) and crop water use efficiency (WUE) under this new trend. This understanding is significant for agricultural water management in the NCP. This study investigated the historical AET and WUE trends for the winter wheat–summer maize cropping system during 1992–2014. This investigation was based on a long-term AET dataset obtained using a large lysimeter from 1992 to 2014 at the Yucheng Comprehensive Experiment Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences near the Lower Yellow River. The results showed that annual AET decreased pre-2008 and rebounded post-2008. The rebound rate of annual AET from 2008 to 2014 was more than three times the annual decrease rate of AET from 1992 to 2008. The significant increase in summer maize AET mainly contributed to the rebound of the annual AET after 2008. Following the changes in AET and crop yield, the annual WUE had evidently increased for 1992–2008 and sharply decreased from 2008 to 2014. The significant decrease in winter wheat WUE mainly contributed to the annual decrease in WUE post-2008. Climate change, agricultural management, and crop yields were observed to regulate the changes in AET and WUE. In the context of accelerating climate change and the increased frequency of extreme climatic events, strategies to improve WUE by the Lower Yellow River have been proposed, which may also be helpful in the NCP and similar regions worldwide.

Improved photosynthesis by leaf nutrient content enhances water use efficiency in Juniperus tibetica along elevation gradients above 4000 m a.s.l.

ABSTRACT Background Leaf functional traits can influence the ability of plants to grow when facing stresses. Climate changes can impose fundamental impacts on plant growth, especially at high mountains. Yet little is known about relationships between leaf functional traits and elevations in tree species above 4000 m a.s.l. Aims Our objective was to investigate and compare the trend in water use efficiency (WUE) in the Tibetan juniper (Juniperus tibetica) along elevation gradients under different climate conditions, and by presenting evidence from leaf functional traits, to simultaneously clarify the underlying mechanisms. Methods We investigated various leaf functional traits, i.e. leaf carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopic composition, leaf N and P concentration and specific leaf area (SLA) in J. tibetica, a dominant tree species of the treeline, along elevation gradients at three study sites between 4150 and 4950 m a.s.l. in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Results As elevation increased, leaf δ13C, used as a proxy for WUE, increased, whereas leaf δ18Odecreased in J. tibetica. Leaf N area also increased with elevation. Conclusions We deduced that increasing WUE with elevation was due to enhanced photosynthetic capacity at all three study sites, and increased N area may enhance photosynthesis and hence WUE.

Effects of different nitrogen fertilizers on the yield, water- and nitrogen-use efficiencies of drip-fertigated wheat and maize in the North China Plain

Fertigated areas of wheat and maize in the North China Plain (NCP) have grown rapidly during recent years, but little information is available on the effects of different nitrogen (N) fertilizers applied through drip fertigation on wheat and maize. A field experiment was conducted in the NCP during 2012−2016 to evaluate the effects of urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate and calcium nitrate applied by drip fertigation (no N as the control, CK) on grain yield, water use efficiency (WUE), N use efficiency (NUE) and N loss in wheat and maize. A total of 250 kg N ha−1 and 205.5 kg N ha−1 were split into six and four applications and applied by drip fertigation at key growth stages during the wheat and maize growing seasons, respectively. The results showed that urea and calcium nitrate produced higher yields (p < 0.05) than ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate in the first year of the study in both wheat and maize, whereas in subsequent years, ammonium sulfate increased the yield of wheat by 11.3 %–25.1 %, 13.7 %–46.1 % and 16.4 %–32.7 % compared with urea, ammonium nitrate and calcium nitrate, respectively. Urea and ammonium sulfate averagely produced higher maize yields than ammonium nitrate and calcium nitrate, but no significant difference in maize yield was found between urea and ammonium sulfate. Similar trends in WUE and NUE were recorded in both crops. Ammonium sulfate contributed to higher WUE and NUE in wheat compared to the other N fertilizers except in the first year, while urea contributed to higher WUE and NUE in maize. The total apparent N loss in urea was 13.9 %, 15.4 % and 15.8 % lower (p < 0.05) than those in ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate and calcium nitrate after three cycles of the rotation (2012–2015), respectively. Considering both yield and NUE, and based on the results of apparent N loss for the four N fertilizers under field conditions, ammonium sulfate was recommended as the superior N source for wheat under drip fertigation, while urea was the optimal N source for maize under drip fertigation.