Arid Zone Research ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (4): 650-660.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2024.04.11

• Plant Ecology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Temporal and spatial characteristics of ecosystem water use efficiency and influencing factors in Yanchi County, Ningxia, China

MA Longlong1,2(), YI Zhiyuan1,2, WEI Caiyong3, ZHOU Feng4, LI Mingtao4, QIAO Chenglong1,2, DU Lingtong1,2()   

  1. 1. Breeding Base for State Key Laboratory of Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration in Northwest China, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, Ningxia, China
    2. Key Laboratory for Restoration and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystem in Northwest China of Ministry of Education, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, Ningxia, China
    3. Ningxia Institute of Remote Sensing Survey, Yinchuan 750021, Ningxia, China
    4. Ningxia Institute of Geological and Mineral Resources Survey, Yinchuan 750021, Ningxia, China
  • Received:2023-07-12 Revised:2024-01-15 Online:2024-04-15 Published:2024-04-26

Abstract:

Water use efficiency (WUE) is an important measure of the tradeoff between photosynthetic carbon sequestration and water consumption in ecosystems. Estimation of vegetation’ WUE and analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of vegetation WUE are crucial for ecosystem preservation as well as the wise use and development of water resources in this area. In this study, we assessed the spatial and temporal characteristics of vegetation WUE and its main influencing factors in Salt Lake County from 2000 to 2019 on the basis of GPP and ET data from MODIS. The results were as follows: (1) Both ET and GPP increased significantly from 2000 to 2019 (P<0.01), and the rates of increase were 7.61 mm·a-1 and 7.23 g C·m-2·a-1, respectively. ET and GPP showed obvious heterogeneity in space. (2) Between 2000 and 2019, the vegetation WUE in Yanchi County fluctuated between 0.80 and 1.11 g C·kg-1·H2O, and the multiyear average value was 0.91 g C·kg-1·H2O. The rate of increase was 0.0013 g C·kg-1·H2O·a-1, but it was not significant. The vegetation WUE showed high heterogeneity in space, with high values mainly distributed in the northeast and low values in the southwest. (3) From 2000 to 2019, WUE mainly increased and decreased in 54.70% and in 45.30% of the area, respectively, in Yanchi County. In the future, 61.48% of the area in Yanchi County will show the same change trends in WUE as in the past, and 38.52% of the area will show reversed trends in WUE. (4) The WUE of each land use type in different study periods decreased in the following order: forest land > cultivated land > grassland. (5) There was a significant correlation between WUE and GPP in Yanchi County (P<0.05), whereas variations in GPP were mainly driven by changes in ET, NDVI, and precipitation, indicating that GPP is the main reason for the changes in WUE in Yanchi County. The Yanchi County Ecological Restoration Project not only enhances vegetation productivity but also increases regional water consumption, resulting in fluctuations in the WUE of the regional ecosystem. This suggests that vegetation restoration in Yanchi County has intensified regional water depletion while enhancing vegetation productivity, which provides a theoretical basis for future ecological revegetation and codevelopment of water resources in Yanchi County.

Key words: water use efficiency, gross primary productivity, evapotranspiration, desert steppe, ecological restoration, Ningxia