Responses of water use efficiency of Chinese fir to mixed planting and meteorological factors

• Published in: Ying yong sheng tai xue bao Vol. 34; no. 12; p. 3232
• Main Authors: Wang, Xiao-di, Zhang, Jie-Ming, Jiang, Jiang, Liu, Zi-Qiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: China 01.12.2023
• Subjects: Chinese fir; climate factor; stable carbon isotope; intrinsic water-use efficiency
• ISSN: 1001-9332
• DOI: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202312.011

Chinese fir in China are generally inefficient plantations with single species, unreasonable stand density, and low productivity. The introduction of broadleaved species is usually adopted as a strategy to improve Chinese fir plantations. Taking the pure forests and mixed forests of the Guanshan Forest Farm in Jiangxi Province as example, we quantified the intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) of trees based on the stable isotope carbon method, as well as its response to meteorological factors, and investigated the improvement of stand quality after introducing into Chinese fir plantation. The results showed that the basal area increment was 0.23 cm in pure forest, being higher than that of 0.19 cm in mixed forest. The δ C and iWUE of pure forest were -27.4‰ and 52.9%, respectively, being lower than those of -26.7‰ and 62.8% in the mixed forest. Tree δ C in pure forest was more sensitive to changes in mean annual precipitation and mean annual relative humidity, while that in mixed forest was not significantly