Changes in Water-Use Efficiency of Eucalyptus Plantations and Its Driving Factors in a Small County in South China

Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) has been central in revealing the variability in terrestrial carbon and water cycles. Short-rotation plantations such as Eucalyptus plantations can simultaneously impact net primary production (NPP) and actual evapotranspiration (ETa), components of WUE, resultin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2023-08, Vol.15 (15), p.2754
Main Authors: Yao, Yuefeng, Huang, Jinjun, He, Wen, Zhu, Jiafu, Li, Yanyu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon sequestration
Climate change
Efficiency
Forests
Hydrologic cycle
Plantations
Precipitation
Radiation
Variables
Vegetation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) has been central in revealing the variability in terrestrial carbon and water cycles. Short-rotation plantations such as Eucalyptus plantations can simultaneously impact net primary production (NPP) and actual evapotranspiration (ETa), components of WUE, resulting in changes in terrestrial carbon and water cycles. However, there are few detailed studies on the changes in the WUE of Eucalyptus plantations at the catchment scale with high spatial remote sensing imagery. Here, we present the changes in the WUE of Eucalyptus plantations and its driving factors (i.e., NPP and ETa) using satellite-based models combined with 5-m spatial resolution RapidEye imagery in a small county in South China. The increases in ETa of Eucalyptus plantations are primarily the result of climate warming and result in low WUE of Eucalyptus plantations. The management practice used (short rotation in this study) can enhance the effect of climate warming on WUE by varying the NPP of Eucalyptus plantations. A high value of NPP leads to a high WUE of Eucalyptus plantations at the end of a short rotation, while a low value of NPP results in a low WUE at the beginning of another short rotation. Changes in the WUE of Eucalyptus plantations indicated large spatial and temporal variability, associated with climate warming and short-rotation practices.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w15152754