Synthesized Attributes of Water Use by Regional Vegetation: A Key to Cognition of “Water Pump” Viewpoint

Abstract

Recently, the frequent seasonal drought in Southwest China has brought considerable concerns and continuous heated arguments on the “water pump” viewpoint (i.e., the water demand from Hevea spp. and Eucalyptus spp. can be treated as a water pump) once again. However, such viewpoint just focused on water consumption from vegetation transpiration and its ecoenvironment impacts, which had not considered other attributes of vegetation, namely, water saving and drought resistance, and hydrological regulation (water conservation) into consideration. Thus, in this paper, the synthesized attributes of regional vegetation water use had been mainly discussed. The results showed that the study on such aspects as the characters of water consumption from vegetation transpiration, the potential of water saving and drought resistance, and the effects of hydrological regulation in Southwest China lagged far behind, let alone the report on synthesized attributes of water utilization with the organic combination of the three aspects above or the paralleled analysis. Accordingly, in this paper, the study on the synthesized attributes of water use by regional vegetation in Southwest China was suggested, and the objectives of such a special study were clarified, targeting the following aspects: (i) characters of water consumption from transpiration of regional typical artificial vegetation; (ii) potential of water saving and drought resistance of regional typical artificial vegetation; (iii) effects of hydrological regulation of regional typical artificial vegetation; (iv) synthesized attributes of water use by regional typical artificial vegetation. It is expected to provide a new idea for the scientific assessment on the regional vegetation ecoenvironment effects and theoretical guidance for the regional vegetation reconstruction and ecological restoration.

Ecosystem Evapotranspiration as a Response to Climate and Vegetation Coverage Changes in Northwest Yunnan, China

“…Therefore, the continuous droughts occurring in Yunnan could not be fully explained by climate reasons alone. Although the potential effects of human activities on droughts have been widely discussed [ 21 – 23 ], empirical studies have not been conducted to determine the extent of climate-change or human-activity contributions to the drought.…”

Efeitos do manejo de florestas plantadas de <i>Eucalyptus</i> sobre os recursos hídricos superficiais na escala de microbacias hidrográficas

“…Em relação às florestas plantadas de Eucalyptus sua expansão também têm sido acompanhada da manutenção de preocupações ambientais (SCOTT, 2005;LIMA, 2010), as quais já foram abordadas em revisões e estudos desenvolvidos na Europa (ROBINSON et al, 2003), África do Sul (SCOTT et al, 2000;SCOTT;PRINSLOO, 2008), Índia (SHARDA et al, 1998), China (SUN et al, 2006;SHI et al, 2012;HUANG et al, 2014), Brasil (LIMA, 1993), Argentina (ENGEL;STIEGLITZ, 2005;PARUELO, 2005;NOSETTO et al, 2012), Uruguai (SILVEIRA; ALONSO, 2009), Chile LITTLE et al, 2009), Estados Unidos (VANCE et al, 2014) e, mais recentemente, até mesmo na Austrália (ZHANG; ZHAO; BROWN, 2012; WILLIAMS, 2014), país de origem do gênero.…”

“…Devido principalmente ao valor elevado das terras rurais no sul e sudeste do país, a expansão das áreas com florestas plantadas tem ocorrido em direção a novas regiões, denominadas de novas fronteiras florestais, as quais englobam os Estados do Mato Grosso do Sul, Maranhão, Piauí e Tocantins (GONÇALVES et al, 2013). Não somente a expansão das áreas com florestas plantadas, mas também as áreas mais tradicionalmente utilizadas, localizadas nos Estados de Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Espírito Santo e Bahia, geram preocupações e questionamentos por parte de diferentes setores da sociedade em relação aos efeitos gerados ao meio ambiente em decorrência da implantação e do desenvolvimento dessas florestas, em especial, os efeitos sobre os recursos hídricos.As preocupações ambientais relativas às florestas plantadas de Eucalyptus e os recursos hídricos já foram abordadas em diferentes regiões do mundo comoEuropa (ROBINSON et al, 2003), África do Sul(SCOTT et al, 2000;SCOTT;PRINSLOO, 2008), Índia (SHARDA et al, 1998), China (SHI et al, 2012HUANG et al, 2014), Estados Unidos (VANCE et al, 2014, Austrália (ZHANG; ZHAO; BROWN, 2012) e em alguns países da América do Sul, comoBrasil (LIMA, 1993), Argentina (ENGEL;STIEGLITZ, 2005;PARUELO, 2005;NOSETTO et al, 2012), Uruguai (SILVEIRA; ALONSO, 2009) e Chile(LITTLE et al, 2009).…”