mobilebw1

EcologicalEngineering94(2016)574–582ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirectEcologicalEngineeringjournalhomepage:www.
elsevier.
com/locate/ecolengEffectofrockfragmentscontentonwaterconsumption,biomassandwater-useefciencyofplantsunderdifferentwaterconditionsMeixiaMia,Ming'anShaoa,b,,BingxiaLiucaKeyLaboratoryofEcosystemNetworkObservationandModeling,InstituteofGeographicSciencesandNaturalResourcesResearch,ChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing100101,ChinabStateKeyLaboratoryofSoilErosionandDrylandFarmingontheLoessPlateau,InstituteofSoilandWaterConservation,ChineseAcademyofSciences&MinistryofWaterResources,Yangling712100,ChinacKeyLaboratoryofAgriculturalWaterResources,CenterforAgriculturalResourcesResearch,InstituteofGeneticsandDevelopmentalBiology,ChineseAcademyofSciences,286HuaizhongRoad,Shijiazhuang050021,ChinaarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received22December2015Receivedinrevisedform18May2016Accepted16June2016Availableonline15July2016Keywords:RockfragmentPlantWaterconsumptionBiomassWater-useefciencyabstractTheproportionofrockfragmentsinsoilaffectswateravailabilityandthereforethecharacteristicsofplants.
Theobjectiveofthisstudywastoevaluatetheeffectofrock-fragmentcontentonplantwaterconsumption,biomass,growthandwater-useefciency(WUE)underdifferentwaterconditions.
Fourgravimetrictreatmentsofrock-fragmentcontents(0,10,30and50%)andfourtreatmentsofwatercon-tentweretestedinsandyloamysoils.
Thewatercontentsoftherock-freesoilwere15–19%(80–100%ofeldcapacity),11–15%(60–80%ofeldcapacity),9–11%(47–60%ofeldcapacity)and6–9%(32–47%ofeldcapacity).
Transpiration,plantheight,basalstemdiameterandbiomassofkorshinskpeashrubsinthetreatmentsweremeasuredandcompared.
Plantsgrowninthesoilwithrockfragmentstranspiredless,especiallyunderwell-wateredconditions.
Themeandailytranspirationofplantsinthesoilswith30and50%rock-fragmentcontentswas18%(P=0.
021)and34%(P=0.
001)lower,respectively,in2014,and25%(P=0.
008)and31%(P=0.
002)lower,respectively,in2015relativetothesoilwithoutrockfragmentsandwasnotlowerinthesoilwith10%rockfragments.
Plantheight,basalstemdiameterandbiomassdidnotdiffersignicantlybetweenrock-fragmentcontentsof0and30%butwerelowerat50%.
WUE,theratiobetweentotaltranspirationandbiomass,washighestat30%andthendecreasedat50%.
IncreasingplantwaterstresscouldthusimproveWUE.
Therockfragmentsinthesoilhadsignicanteffectsonplantwaterconsumption,biomass,growthandWUE.
Optimizingtherock-fragmentcontentisnecessarywhentherelationshipsbetweenplantsandwaterinstonyecosystemsareevaluated.
2016ElsevierB.
V.
Allrightsreserved.
1.
IntroductionAsoilrockfragmentisdenedasaparticlewithadiameter>2mm.
Fragmentsformingasaresultofprocessesofsoilgenesisandhumanactivityexistatthesoilsurfaceandwithinthesoil.
Stonysoilsarewidespreadandcanreachland-coverratiosupto60%intheMediterraneanregionofWesternEurope(PoesenandLavee,1994).
Theproportionofstonysoilis>30%ontheLoessPlateauofChina(Hou,1993).
Thepresenceofrockfragmentssignicantlyaffectshydrologi-calfunctioningsuchaswaterstorage,inltrationandevaporationandsoilhydraulicpropertiessuchashydraulicconductivityandwaterretention(VanWesemaeletal.
,1996;MaandShao,2008;Correspondenceto:11#,DaTunRoad,ChaoYangDistrict,Beijing,China.
E-mailaddress:shaoma@igsnrr.
ac.
cn(M.
Shao).
Lietal.
,2008;Zhouetal.
,2009;Baetensetal.
,2009;Maetal.
,2010;Nováketal.
,2011;Teteganetal.
,2011).
Watermovementin,andthehydraulicpropertiesof,soilsarestronglydependentontheavailabilityofwaterforplants.
Rockfragmentsinstonyareasshouldthereforebeconsideredinstudiesofwateravailabilityforplantsandofwaterexchangeamongplants,rockfragmentsandsoils.
Teteganetal.
(2011)proposedpedotransferfunctionsbasedonthelinearrelationshipbetweentheavailablewatercontent(AWC)ofrockfragmentsandtheNapierianlogarithmofbulkden-sityandtherelationshipbetweenwatercontentat100and15840hPa.
Thesimulationshowedthatexcluding30%ofthepebblesinastonyhorizonunderestimatedthesoilavailablewatercontent(SAWC)by5%forchertpebblesandby33%forchalkpebbles.
NovákandKˇnava(2012)demonstratedthatthepresenceofstonescandecreasesoilwater-holdingcapacityandhydraulicconductivity,whichcandecreasetheavailabilityofsoilwaterfortrees.
Teteganhttp://dx.
doi.
org/10.
1016/j.
ecoleng.
2016.
06.
0440925-8574/2016ElsevierB.
V.
Allrightsreserved.
M.
Mietal.
/EcologicalEngineering94(2016)574–582575Table1Mainphysicalpropertiesofthenesoil.
Sand>0.
02mm(%)Silt0.
02–0.
002mm(%)Clay40mm(%)2.
156.
6952.
9211.
3826.
86contentofcalciumcarbonate(ZhuandShao,2008).
Theconcretionshaveformedbythesyntheticactionofpedogenesis,soilerosion,andhumanactivityandarerandomlydistributedinandonthesurfaceofthesoil.
Theserockfragmentshavethecapacitytoabsorbwater.
Thesoilandrockfragmentsforthisstudywerecollectedfromthecatchment.
Thesoilusedinthisstudywassandyloam,classiedaccordingtotheISSS(InternationalSocietyofSoilScience)system.
ThemainphysicalpropertiesofthesoilarepresentedinTable1.
FieldcapacitywasdeterminedbythemodiedWilcoxmethod(Hanksetal.
,1954).
ThesizedistributionoftherockfragmentsispresentedinTable2.
Fragmentsizesof20–30mmrepresentedthelargestproportion(>50%),followedbyfragments>40mm.
2.
2.
ExperimentaldesignandtreatmentsTheexperimentwasconductedbeneathamobileplasticrainshelterfromMaytoOctober2014and2015usingPVCcolumns1mhighand20cmindiameter.
Thene(BW1andBW2inthetreatmentswith10%rock-fragmentcontentin2015andbetweenDW1andDW2inthetreatmentswith50%rock-fragmentcontent.
Maintainingsimilardailytranspirationisreasonableunderhighwatercondi-tions,eventhoughthewatercontentsdifferedsignicantly.
Variousplantsphysiologicalindices(suchastranspirationrate,photosyn-theticrate,andplantheight)begantodecreasewhenwatercontentM.
Mietal.
/EcologicalEngineering94(2016)574–582577Table3Changesofwatercontentduringtheexperiment.
Rock-fragmentcontent(%)Treatment20142015Rangeofwatercontent(gg1)Averagewatercontent(gg1)Rangeofwatercontent(gg1)Averagewatercontent(gg1)0AW10.
121–0.
1380.
1300.
097–0.
1360.
119AW20.
099–0.
1100.
105*0.
080–0.
1070.
093*AW30.
071–0.
0800.
0770.
062–0.
0800.
070AW40.
050–0.
0640.
0600.
055–0.
0650.
061§10BW10.
117–0.
1310.
1270.
095–0.
1310.
113BW20.
092–0.
1040.
100*0.
070–0.
1050.
090*BW30.
069–0.
0780.
0750.
060–0.
0770.
069BW40.
057–0.
0640.
0610.
052–0.
0630.
058#30CW10.
112–0.
1190.
1150.
090–0.
1160.
105CW20.
081–0.
0960.
0890.
072–0.
0950.
085CW30.
061–0.
0730.
0680.
063–0.
0720.
068CW40.
048–0.
0600.
0560.
056–0.
0610.
05950DW10.
092–0.
1030.
0980.
076–0.
1030.
091*DW20.
080–0.
0870.
0840.
063–0.
0880.
076DW30.
060–0.
0680.
0660.
057–0.
0680.
064§DW40.
049–0.
0570.
0550.
051–0.
0590.
055#Note:Thesamesymbolsafterthenumbersinthesamecolumnindicatethatthedifferenceofwatercontentamongthetreatmentswasnotsignicant.
Fig.
1.
Thedynamicchangeofmeandailytranspiration(±SE)in2014and2015.
A,B,C,andDrepresentrock-fragmentcontentsof0,10,30,and50%,respectively.
W1,W2,W3,andW4representthefourwatertreatmentsforthenesoilof15–19,11–15,9–11,and6–9%,respectively.
AW,BW,CW,andDWrepresentmeandailytranspirationofthefourwatertreatmentsforrock-fragmentcontentsof0,10,30,and50%,respectively.
578M.
Mietal.
/EcologicalEngineering94(2016)574–582Fig.
2.
Mean(±SE)stemheightanddiameterfromMay2014toSeptember2015.
A,B,C,andDrepresentrock-fragmentcontentsof0,10,30,and50%,respectively.
W1,W2,W3,andW4representthefourwatertreatmentsforthenesoilof15–19,11–15,9–11,and6–9%,respectively.
Table4Comparisonoftranspirationforthedifferentrock-fragmentcontentsinthewater-contenttreatments.
Signicantdifferences(PBW10.
179ab24.
867ab0.
376a41.
584abBW20.
174ab23.
981abc0.
302bc33.
633cdBW30.
092f12.
106efg0.
186ef20.
686fgBW40.
069gh9.
063g0.
129g14.
169gh30CW10.
163bc22.
498abc0.
318bc35.
182bcdCW20.
148cd19.
766bcd0.
262cd29.
097deCW30.
123e11.
431fg0.
136fg15.
081fghCW40.
082fg10.
015fg0.
065h7.
200ij50DW10.
143cd19.
543cd0.
314bc35.
024cdDW20.
123e15.
147def0.
239de26.
692efDW30.
081fg8.
717g0.
112gh11.
297hjiDW40.
050h9.
237g0.
065h7.
177jisbelowacriticalvalue(Bielorai,1973;Sinclairetal.
,1998;Wuetal.
,2011b,c).
Dailytranspirationtendedtodecreaseastheproportionofrockfragmentsinthesoilincreased.
Theresultsofcomparisonsofmeandailytranspirationforeachrock-fragmentcontentshowedthatthedailytranspirationforplantsgrownwithoutrockfragments(0%)washigherthanforplantsgrownwithrock-fragmentcontentsof30and50%(Table5):18and34%higher,respectively,in2014andM.
Mietal.
/EcologicalEngineering94(2016)574–582579Table5Comparisonofmeantranspirationforthefourrock-fragmentcontents.
Signicantdifferences(PBW1>CW1>DW1(Fig.
1andTable4).
DailytranspirationwashigherforAW1thanforCW1andDW1.
Dailytranspirationin2014forwater-contenttreatmentW1with50%rockfrag-mentswas39%lowerthanwithoutrockfragments.
Thedescendingorderofdailytranspirationforwater-contenttreatmentW2was:AW2>BW2>CW2>DW2.
ThedifferencesofdailytranspirationbetweenBW2andCW2andbetweenCW2andDW2in2014weresignicant.
Dailytranspirationforwater-contenttreatmentW3wassimilartothatfortreatmentW2.
Dailytranspirationforwater-contenttreatmentW4,didnotdiffersignicantlyamongAW4,BW4andCW4in2014andamongAW4,CW4andDW4in2015.
Changesinplanttranspirationmaydependontheratioofwatercontentbetweenthenesoilandrockfragments.
Thesaturatedwatercontentoftherockfragmentsinthisstudywas0.
08gg1,whichwaslowerthantheeldcapacityofthenesoil(0.
14gg1).
Theratiowashigherinthetreatmentswithhighwatercontentsthaninthetreatmentswithlowwatercontents.
Thepresenceoftherockfragmentsdecreasedthewatercontentofthestonysoilrel-ativetotherock-freesoilunderwell-wateredconditions(Teteganetal.
,2015b).
Theratioofwatercontentbetweenthenesoilandtherockfragmentsdecreasedgraduallyto1or60%ofeldcapacity).
2.
Plantsgrowninsoilwith50%rockfragmentswereshorter,hadsmallerbasalstemdiametersandhadlowerbiomassesandcom-ponentbiomasses(stems,leaves,androots)thanplantsgrowninrock-freesoil.
Theseparametersdidnotdiffersignicantlybetweentheplantsgrownwith10and30%rockfragments,buttendedtoincreasewhentherock-fragmentcontentincreasedfrom0to30%.
3.
WUErstincreasedandthendecreasedwithincreasinggravi-metricrockfragment.
WUEwaslowestfortheplantsgrowinginthesoilwith50%rockfragments,butwaterstresscouldincreaseWUE.
TherockfragmentcontenttothemaximumWUEwasintherangefrom10%to50%.
Wethereforerecommendmatch-ingrock-fragmentcontentwithmaximumWUEwhendesigningstrategiesofwaterconservationforstonysoils,especiallyinaridandsemiaridareas.
AcknowledgementsThisstudywassupportedbytheNationalNaturalScienceFoun-dationofChina(41530854and41571130081).
Wethanktheeditorandreviewersfortheircommentsandsuggestionsthatimprovedthequalityofthispaper.
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