Estimation of water requirement per unit carbon fixed by Eucalyptus camaldulensis in semi-arid land of Western Australia

• Published in: Science China. Earth sciences 2002 (z1), p.142-147
• Main Author: T. Kojima Y. Tanaka S. Katoh K. Tahara N. Takahashi K, Yamada
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: arid; Australia; camaldulensis; carbon; Eucalyptus; fixation; land; requirement; unit; water; Western
• ISSN: 1674-7313; 1869-1897

Afforestation in arid land is a promising method for carbon fixation, but the effective utili-zation of water is highly important and required. Thus, the evaluation of the amount of water perunit carbon fixed with the tree growth is required to minimize the amount of water supplied to theplants. In this research, a tree is regarded as a carbon fixation reactor with inflows of water andnutrients from roots, and CO2 as the carbon source from leaves with outflow of water vapor fromleaves and accumulation in the tree itself. In the process of photosynthesis and respiration nutri-tional elements are dissolved in water flow in trees. They do not flow out by these reactions, butare accumulated in trees. Thus, we have treated the behaviour of nutrients as a marker to evaluatethe water/carbon ratio. Assuming that nutrient concentration is constant in sap, and the differences in the ratios ofnutrient to carbon in living trees and dead (i.e. litter fall, etc.) are negiected, the ratio of the usedwater to fixed carbon is given as the ratio of nutrient to carbon in the tree body divided by the ratioof nutrient to water in sap. However, some nutrients are translocated and concentrated within thetree and some may be discarded through litter fall. Thus it is important to examine which nutrientelement is the most suitable as the tracer. In this paper, the results of the above method applied to Eucalyptus camaldulensis in semi-arid land of Western Australia are shown. The value of water requirement per unit carbon fixationdetermined from potassium balance is between 421 kg-H2O/kg-C for mature trees and 285kg-H2O/k9-C for young trees, while the values from calcium balance are much larger than these.The cause of the discrepancy between these values is discussed based on the measured elementconcentrations in sap and trees and the plant physiology. Finally, the actual average value throughthe life of a tree is suggested to fall between the two values.