Life on the edge – to which degree does phreatic water sustain vegetation in the periphery of the Taklamakan Desert?

Bruelheide, Helge; Vonlanthen, Beatrix; Jandt, Ute; Thomas, Frank M.; Foetzki, Andrea; Gries, Dirk; Wang, Gang; Zhang, Ximing; Runge, Michael C.

doi:10.1111/j.1654-109x.2009.01050.x

Cited by 37 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(63 reference statements)

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“…By decreasing evaporation and improving moisture retention by canopy shading and organic matter accumulation, respectively (Pugnaire et al 1996, Kidron andGutschick 2013), benefactor plants can indirectly increase the water content of shallow soil. The spatial distribution of available moisture in shallow soil can also be directly influenced by the hydraulic lift of woody and herbaceous plants (Bruelheide et al 2010, Kizito et al 2012). However, target plants can be inhibited when soil moisture is negatively influenced by indirect effects, like canopy interception, or direct effects, like water competition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme drought stress shifts net facilitation to neutral interactions between shrubs and sub‐canopy plants in an arid desert

Zhang

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2017

Oikos

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The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts that the importance or intensity of competition and facilitation will change inversely along abiotic stress gradients. It was originally postulated that increasing environmental stress can induce a monotonic increase in facilitation. However, more recent models predicted that the relationship between severity and interaction exhibits a hump-shaped pattern, in which positive interactions prevail under moderate stress but decline at the extreme ends of stress gradients. In the present study, we conducted a field experiment along a temporal rainfall gradient for five consecutive years, in order to investigate interactions in a shrub-herbaceous plant community at the southern edge of the Badain Jaran Desert, and, more specifically, investigated the effects of Calligonum mongolicum, a dominant shrub species, on both abiotic environmental variables and the performance of sub-canopy plant species. We found that shrubs can improve sub-canopy water regimes, soil properties, plant biomass, density, cover, and richness and, more importantly, that the positive effect of shrubs on sub-canopy soil moisture during the summer diminishes as rainfall decreases, a pattern that partly explains the collapse of the positive interaction between shrubs and their understory plants. These results provide empirical evidence that the positive effect of shrubs on understory plant communities in extreme arid environments may decline and become neutral with increasing drought stress.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme drought stress shifts net facilitation to neutral interactions between shrubs and sub‐canopy plants in an arid desert

Zhang

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2017

Oikos

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“…In arid regions, abiotic factors like high irradiance, heat, water shortage, salt stress, as well as sand burial could be the main stress factors. Bruelheide et al (2010) indicated that the terrain of Cele region appears to have higher altitude in the south and lower altitude in the north, additionally the ground water level slowly increases from 17.15 m at the Cele County to 3.5 m at the light desertification region. In addition, the biennial plants of A. sparsifolia with strong, deep roots, on average, have approximate 6-m length and 17 ramets, so that the root could reach the ground water.…”

Section: Effects Of Elevated Temperature On Psiimentioning

confidence: 96%

Effects of elevated temperature on photosynthesis in desert plant Alhagi sparsifolia S

Wang¹,

Li²,

Lin

et al. 2011

Photosynt.

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Most plants growing in temperate desert zone exhibit brief temperature-induced inhibition of photosynthesis at midday in the summer. Heat stress has been suggested to restrain the photosynthesis of desert plants like Alhagi sparsifolia S. It is therefore possible that high midday temperatures damage photosynthetic tissues, leading to the observed inhibition of photosynthesis. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying heat-induced inhibition of photosynthesis in A. sparsifolia, a dominant species found at the transition zone between oasis and sandy desert on the southern fringe of the Taklamakan desert. The chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence induction kinetics and CO 2 response curves were used to analyze the thermodynamic characters of both photosystem II (PSII) and Rubisco after leaves were exposed to heat stress. When the leaves were heated to temperatures below 43ºC, the initial fluorescence of the dark-adapted state (F o ), and the maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (F v /F m ), the number of active reaction centers per cross section (RCs) and the leaf vitality index (PI) increased or declined moderately. These responses were reversed, however, upon cooling. Moreover, the energy allocation in PSII remained stable. The gradual appearance of a K point in the fluorescence curve at 48ºC indicated that higher temperatures strongly impaired PSII and caused irreversible damage. As the leaf temperature increased, the activity of Rubisco first increased to a maximum at 34ºC and then decreased as the temperature rose higher. Under high-temperature stress, cell began to accumulate oxidative species, including ammoniacal nitrogen, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), and superoxide (O 2˙¯) , suggesting that disruption of photosynthesis may result from oxidative damage to photosynthetic proteins and thylakoid membranes. Under heat stress, the biosynthesis of nonenzyme radical scavenging carotenoids (Cars) increased. We suggest that although elevated temperature affects the heat-sensitive components comprising of PSII and Rubisco, under moderately high temperature the decrease in photosynthesis is mostly due to inactivation of dark reactions.

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“…There are different types of vegetation, composed of different proportions of a few woody species, which differ in their hydrological niche with respect to distance to the groundwater table (Bruelheide et al, 2010). Maximum distances to the groundwater table of mature stands have been found to reach 17.5 m , distances at dune tops can even attain 24 m (Gries et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Establishment and early survival of five phreatophytes of the Taklamakan Desert

Vonlanthen

Zhang

Bruelheide

2011

Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants

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Life on the edge – to which degree does phreatic water sustain vegetation in the periphery of the Taklamakan Desert?

Cited by 37 publications

References 43 publications

Extreme drought stress shifts net facilitation to neutral interactions between shrubs and sub‐canopy plants in an arid desert

Extreme drought stress shifts net facilitation to neutral interactions between shrubs and sub‐canopy plants in an arid desert

Effects of elevated temperature on photosynthesis in desert plant Alhagi sparsifolia S

Establishment and early survival of five phreatophytes of the Taklamakan Desert

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