Pak. J. Agri. Sci., Vol. 55(1), 127-135; 2018 ISSN (Print) 0552-9034, ISSN (Online) 2076-0906 DOI: 10.21162/PAKJAS/18.6626 http://www.pakjas.com.pk COMPARATIVE STUDY ON WATER USE EFFICIENCY BETWEEN INTRODUCED SPECIES (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) AND INDIGENOUS SPECIES (Tamarix aphylla) ON MARGINAL SANDY LANDS OF NOORPUR THAL Shazia Afzal1, Muhammad Farrakh Nawaz1,2,*, Muhammad Tahir Siddiqui1 and Zubair Aslam3 1Department of Forestry and Range Management, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan; 2School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 3121 Richmond, Victoria, Australia; 3Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. *Corresponding author’s e-mail:
[email protected] Future climate change predictive models are anticipating the warmer temperatures and altered rainfall patterns that can result in water stress for terrestrial vegetation. Water stress is a limiting factor for plant growth and wood production. Water use efficiency (WUE) is considered as the important parameter to examine the success of plants’ adaptation in drought conditions. Objective of this study was to observe the comparative WUE between introduced species (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and native species (Tamarix aphylla) in two different soil media. Four months old uniform sized seedlings of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Tamarix aphylla were transplanted in pots with two different soil media for one year experiment. During the experiment, the leaf litter was collected and meteorological data was obtained. At the end of experiment all the morphological parameters of saplings were measured and WUE was determined. It was found that plant height was higher for Eucalyptus camaldulensis (251 cm) as compared to Tamarix aphylla (232.17 cm) irrespective of soil media.