Abstract: Sand-burial controlled experiment was conducted to investigate the response of Salix gordejevii seedling growth, and the sand burial depths were varied from 0, 10 and 20 to 40 cm. The results show that the mortality of S. gordejevii was increased with increasing sand burial depth. There were some significant differences in the stem height, relative height growth rate, biomass allocated to roots, stems and leaves as well as the rootshoot ratio of seedlings in 4 treatments. There was no significant sand burial effect on absolute height growth rate and biomass accumulation. Slight sand burying promoted the growth of stem. With the increase of sand burial depth, the stem growth could be increased, but the relative height growth rate was decreased. The root biomass was increased to absorb water and nutrient under slight sand burial depth. More biomass was allocated to shoots with the increase of sand burial depth. These results reveal that the defense of S. gordejevii seedlings was increased by stem growing and biomass allocation so as to maintain photosynthesis by stem growing or allocating more biomass to shoots.  

Key words: Salix gordejevii, seedling, sand burial depth, survival rate, root-shoot ratio, biomass, Horqin sandy land