Water use strategies of Nitraria tangutorum in the lake-basin region of the Badain Jaran Desert

Jie Qin; Jianhua Si; Bing Jia; Chunyan Zhao; Dongmeng Zhou; Xiaohui He; Chunlin Wang; Xinglin Zhu

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1240656

Water use strategies of Nitraria tangutorum in the lake-basin region of the Badain Jaran Desert

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Aug 15:14:1240656. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1240656. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jie Qin^{1

2}, Jianhua Si¹, Bing Jia^{1

2}, Chunyan Zhao¹, Dongmeng Zhou^{1

2}, Xiaohui He^{1

2}, Chunlin Wang^{1

2}, Xinglin Zhu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Eco-Hydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Information regarding plant water-use strategies is essential for understanding the hydrological processes and plant survival adaptation mechanisms in desert lake basin regions. To examine the water use strategies of plants in desert lake basin areas, water uptake patterns, water use efficiency, and water potential of Nitraria tangutorum were investigated at different distances from the lake duringhe growing seasons in the lake basin regions of the Badain Jaran Desert. The results indicate that N. tangutorum primarily absorbed groundwater in May (63.8%) and August (53.5%), relied on deep soil water in June (75.1%), and uniformly absorbed soil water from different layers in July. These observations could be explained by periodic fluctuations in the groundwater level and the consequent decrease in soil water availability, as well as plant root adjustments. As soil water availability decreases, N. tangutorum adapts to water variation by increasing its water use efficiency (WUE) and reducing its leaf water potential (Ψ). With intensified water stress, N. tangutorum gradually shifted from adventurous anisohydric regulation to conservative isohydric regulation. Thus, N. tangutorum responds to diverse degrees of environmental changes by altering its water-use strategy. A better understanding of the adaptive water use strategies developed by desert plants under varying water availability conditions provides insight into the diversity of species' reactions to long-term drought and quantifies the hydrological cycle of desert ecosystems against the background of worldwide climate warming.

Keywords: desert lake-basin region; plant water use pattern; stable isotope; water response mechanism; water use.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Major Science and Technology Project in Inner Mongolia Autonomous region of China (No. Zdzx2018057), the Innovation Cross Team Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS (No. JCTD-2019-19), Transformation Projects of Scientific and Technological Achievements in Inner Mongolia Autonomous region of China (No. 2021CG0046), the Open Project in the Key Laboratory of Conservation and Utilization of Biological Resources in Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (No. BRZD2202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42001038), and the Project of Science and Technology Program of Alxa League: Ecosystem Health Assessment and Ecological Restoration Countermeasures of East Juyan Sea Wetland in the Tail of Heihe River.