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Turkish Journal of Botany

DOI

10.3906/bot-1303-81

Abstract

Soil-plant water relations are crucial for understanding the mechanisms by which plants adapt to their environments. An experiment was conducted to understand the responses of 4 dominant psammophyte shrub species to different sandy environments. Pots were filled with tap water or sand, and pots planted with different species and filled with sand with and without pot covers were kept in 4 growth cabinets at 15/25 °C and with a water supply of 75 mm per month. Soil water content; dry weights of roots, shoots, and leaves; and leaf area were measured. The relative growth rate (0.039-0.042 g g^{-1} day^{-1}) was higher for the 2 Artemisia Krasch. species and lower for Caragana korshinskii Kom. and Hedysarum laeve Maxim. (0.016-0.023 g g^{-1} d^{-1}). The final soil water content of the 2 Artemisia species (1.3%-2.7%) was lower than that of H. laeve and C. korshinskii (14.7%-18.4%). Soil water content increased from the top of the profile to deeper levels for H. laeve and C. korshinskii. However, for the 2 Artemisia species, soil water was lower in the deeper profile compared with the upper profile. Considering water consumption, the 2 Artemisia species were similar while C. korshinskii and H. laeve were similar; this result was different from our hypothesis.

Keywords

Biomass allocation, growth, microlysimeter, semiarid regions, plant-water relations

First Page

325

Last Page

333

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