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Response of sap flow in Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) to environmental variables in the Qilian Mountains of China

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Vapor pressure deficit, soil water content, and daily maximum air temperature were the most important variables to affect sap flow.

Abstract

Tree transpiration has a vital role in maintaining water balance in forest ecosystems, but how environmental variables affect transpiration is not clear at different altitudes in the regions of the arid mountains of China. With significant changes in water regimes in arid areas due to climate change, a greater understanding of transpiration responses to environmental variables will determine ecosystem health and management. Therefore, using the heat ratio method, sap flow in Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) at different microenvironment conditions was monitored over 2 years (2016 and 2017) in the Qilian Mountains. Environmental variables were measured synchronously with sap flow. The random forests model showed that vapor pressure deficit (VPD), soil water content (SWC), and daily maximum air temperature (Tmax) were the most important variables to affect sap flow across four sites and two years. These results differed within sites and years. The important variables were VPD and SWC in 2016 due to lower precipitation, and VPD and Tmax in 2017. Meanwhile, the most important variables were VPD in 2016 and Tmax in 2017 at the high-elevation site, while opposite at the low-elevation site. Nonlinear models showed that sap flow decreased when VPD > 0.7–1.0 kPa, and saturated when Tmax > 15–20 °C. Sap flow was more sensitive to SWC at low than at high elevation. We concluded that VPD, SWC, and Tmax controlled sap flow in Qinghai spruce at these sites. Precipitation played a key role in controlling sap flow in different years, and altitudes affected the responses of sap flow to environmental variables within years.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC0507404), Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42007410), the science and technology project of Gansu Province (21JR7RA055), and the Funds for Creative Research Groups of China (No. 41621001).

Funding

This study was funded by The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC0507404), grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42007410), the science and technology project of Gansu Province(21JR7RA055), and the Funds for Creative Research Groups of China (No. 41621001).

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  1. Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Eco-Hydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Jing Fang, Quanyan Tian, Zhibin He, Jun Du, Longfei Chen, Pengfei Lin & Xi Zhu

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  1. Jing Fang
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Correspondence to Zhibin He.

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Fang, J., Tian, Q., He, Z. et al. Response of sap flow in Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) to environmental variables in the Qilian Mountains of China. Trees 36, 1261–1272 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02286-0

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