Contrasting Water Use Strategies of Tamarix Ramosissima in Different
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water Article Contrasting Water Use Strategies of Tamarix ramosissima in Different Habitats in the Northwest of Loess Plateau, China Pengyan Su, Mingjun Zhang *, Deye Qu, Jiaxin Wang, Yu Zhang, Xuyang Yao and Hanyu Xiao College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China; [email protected] (P.S.); [email protected] (D.Q.); [email protected] (J.W.); [email protected] (Y.Z.); [email protected] (X.Y.); [email protected] (H.X.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 15 August 2020; Accepted: 2 October 2020; Published: 8 October 2020 Abstract: As a species for ecological restoration in northern China, Tamarix ramosissima plays an important role in river protection, flood control, regional climate regulation, and landscape construction with vegetation. Two sampling sites were selected in the hillside and floodplain habitats along the Lanzhou City, and the xylems of T. ramosissima and potential water sources were collected, respectively. The Bayesian mixture model (MixSIAR) and soil water excess (SW-excess) were applied to analyze the relationship on different water pools and the utilization ratios of T. ramosissima to potential water sources in two habitats. The results showed that the slope and intercept of local meteoric water line (LMWL) in two habitats were smaller compared with the global meteoric water line (GMWL), which indicated the existence of drier climate and strong evaporation in the study area, especially in the hillside habitat. Except for the three months in hillside, the SW-excess of T. ramosissima were negative, which indicated that xylems of T. ramosissima are more depleted in δ2H than the soil water line. In growing seasons, the main water source in hillside habitat was deep soil water (80~150 cm) and the utilization ratio was 63 17% for T. ramosissima, while the ± main water source in floodplain habitat was shallow soil water (0~30 cm), with a utilization ratio of 42.6 19.2%, and the water sources were different in diverse months. T. ramosissima has a certain ± adaptation mechanism and water-use strategies in two habitats, and also an altered water uptake pattern in acquiring the more stable water. This study will provide a theoretical basis for plant water management in ecological environment protection in the Loess Plateau. Keywords: Tamarix ramosissima; stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes; MixSIAR model; water sources 1. Introduction As a necessary nutrient for plant growth, water affects the vegetation composition and community structure of the ecosystem [1,2], and it is the primarily limiting factor of vegetation growth in arid and semi-arid areas [3,4]. With the variations of global climatic conditions, the hydrological process in arid and semi-arid areas will change, resulting in the change of water use pattern of plants [5]. Under the background of climate change, it is thus essential to analyze the water sources of plants in arid and semi-arid regions to gain a comprehensive knowledge of ecohydrological process and ecological management [6,7]. At present, more and more achievements have been made in the research on plants water sources in arid and semi-arid regions [4,8–15], many studies have shown that plants water sources vary with plant species [8,9], groundwater level [10,11], the distance to the river bank [12,13], and the habitats [14,15]. In terms of different habitats, water plays indispensable roles in plant productivity Water 2020, 12, 2791; doi:10.3390/w12102791 www.mdpi.com/journal/water Water 2020, 12, 2791 2 of 14 and species diversity in terrestrial ecosystems and influences the distribution and ecological functions of vegetation [16]. The plants water uptake is not invariable, plants will respond to water stress as habitats change, thus reflecting the growth strategies of vegetation [17]. Plants have a strong ability of self-regulation and adaptation [4], which can adapt to changes in habitat by changing the main water source, especially in water functioning as the main limiting factor of ecological system. The water source conversion ability is conducive to improve its advantage in interspecies competition [18], which is very beneficial to plant survival, breeding and competition [19]. The self-regulation and adaptability of plants in arid and semi-arid regions can be analyzed by studying the variation of water sources in different habitats. So, it may help understand the effects of water conditions change in different habitats on plant water source, water-use efficiency and drought resistance. As a tracer of water cycle, water stable isotopes (δ18O and δ2H) has been commonly used in many fields within the discipline of ecohydrology in recent years, mainly including plants water strategy [20–22], soil water movement process [23,24], precipitation and soil water mixing process [25–27] and other aspects. Stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes provide a more effective, powerful and nondestructive approach to identify plant water sources compared with root system excavation means [22]. For most terrestrial plants, there is no isotopic discrimination in the water absorption of plant before transpiration [28], thus, plant water sources can be confirmed by comparing the isotopic compositions in xylem water and all potential water sources [29]. Many methods and models have been used to calculate the contribution ratios of potential water sources to plants, such as the graphical inference method, Isosource model, Bayesian isotope mixing model (MixSIR, SIAR and MixSIAR), etc. Wang et al. and Zhang et al. [30,31] found that the MixSIAR model has a better water source apportionment performance by comparing different methods. However, a study indicated that hydrogen isotopic fractionation does occur in xerophytes and halophytes when they absorb the water [32], so only oxygen isotopes are selected to calculate the utilization ratios of plant by MixSIAR model in this study. Tamarix ramosissima is a shrub or small tree, with the advantages of drought tolerance, salt and alkali resistance, high survival rate, rapid growth and strong adaptability. It is the dominant plant in the mountains and floodplains of Lanzhou City, and acts as an afforestation and river protection species for the northern and southern mountains of Lanzhou City and Lanzhou section of the Yellow River. It not only has the functions of river protection and flood control, but can also regional climate regulation and beautify the environment. For Lanzhou City, existing researches were mainly focused on the water source of T. ramosissima in the floodplain habitat. It was found that shallow soil water was the main source of water for T. ramosissima, and in low soil moisture months, T. ramosissima increased the use of deep soil water and river water [33]. Other studies on the water sources of plants in Lanzhou City have mainly focused on the foothills and hillside habitats [31,34]. Nevertheless, there were fewer comparative studies on different habitats. To address this research gap, this study took T. ramosissima in the hillside and floodplain habitats of Lanzhou City as the research object, and collected samples of plant xylem and various potential water sources during the plant growth period (April to October), then determined the contribution ratios of potential water sources for T. ramosissima based on the MixSIAR model. Finally, water use strategies and the adaptation mechanism of T. ramosissima in two habitats were revealed, which provided a theoretical support for ecological construction in the Loess Plateau. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Study Area This study was conducted in Lanzhou City (35◦340~37◦070 N, 102◦350~104◦340 E), Gansu Province, China, which is located in the northwest of the Loess Plateau and the upper reaches of the Yellow River (Figure1). It is the only provincial capital city where the Yellow River flows from southwest to northeast, traverses the whole city, cuts through mountains, and forms a beaded river valley landform Water 2020, 12, 2791 3 of 14 between the canyon and the basin [35]. The overall topography is high in the southwest and low in the northeast, and is characterized by a long and narrow banded basin from east to west, with an average altitude of 1500 m. The mean annual temperature and precipitation are 10.3 ◦C and 324 mm, with the temperate continental climate of study area [36]. The soil is mainly sierozem, and the parent material is loess [37]. The annual average and minimum streamflow in Lanzhou section of the Yellow River are 1022 m3/s and 213 m3/s, and the average highest and lowest water level are 1513.63 m and 1511.30 m, respectively. The sediment is mainly concentrated in the flood season (July to October). The natural vegetation is mainly perennial grasses, xerophytic shrubs and small trees. The vegetation types in the South and North mountains of Lanzhou City are mainly ecological protection forests and scenic forests, which mainly includes Platycladus orientalis, Tamarix chinensis, Caragana sinica, Reaumuria soongarica, etc. [38]. Among them, riparian plants mainly include Salix matsudana, Tamarix ramosissima, Ulmus pumila, Phragmites australis, Typha orientalis, Chenopodium glaucum, etc. [39]. Figure 1. Location of the study area and sampling sites, including the hillside and floodplain habitats in the Lanzhou City. 2.2. Experimental Design and Sample Collection Considering the distribution of vegetation in the study area and the convenience of sampling, During the growing seasons of plants, from April to October 2019, the experiment was carried out in Lanzhou City and the T. ramosissima in the habitats of hillside and floodplain was selected as the research object (Figure1). All samples were collected once a month. Each sampling should be completed between 08:00 and 11:00 (Beijing time) to avoid the influence of light and temperature on the experiment. When collecting plant samples, selected three non-green branches from different individuals with a diameter of 3–5 mm as the collection object of xylem of T.