COMPARATIVE STUDY ON WATER USE EFFICIENCY BETWEEN INTRODUCED SPECIES (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) AND INDIGENOUS SPECIES (Tamarix aphylla) ON MARGINAL SANDY LANDS OF NOORPUR THAL

Shazia Afzal; Muhammad Farrakh Nawaz; Muhammad Tahir Siddiqui; Zubair Aslam

doi:10.21162/PAKJAS/18.6626

Author(s)

Shazia Afzal Department of Forestry and Range Management, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan

Muhammad Farrakh Nawaz Department of Forestry and Range Management, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan; School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne,3121 Richmond, Victoria, Australia

Muhammad Tahir Siddiqui Department of Forestry and Range Management, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan

Zubair Aslam Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Future climate change predictive models are anticipating the warmer temperatures and altered rainfall patterns that can result in water stress for terrestrial vegetation. Water stress is a limiting factor for plant growth and wood production. Water use efficiency (WUE) is considered as the important parameter to examine the success of plants' adaptation in drought conditions. Objective of this study was to observe the comparative WUE between introduced species (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and native species (Tamarix aphylla) in two different soil media. Four months old uniform sized seedlings of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Tamarix aphylla were transplanted in pots with two different soil media for one year experiment. During the experiment, the leaf litter was collected and meteorological data was obtained. At the end of experiment all the morphological parameters of saplings were measured and WUE was determined. It was found that plant height was higher for Eucalyptus camaldulensis (251 cm) as compared to Tamarix aphylla (232.17 cm) irrespective of soil media. Higher total dry biomass (936.82 g) was recorded in Eucalyptus camaldulensis as compare to Tamarix aphylla (670.40 g) showing an increase of 28.43%. Comparison of WUE between introduced species (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and native species (Tamarix aphylla) showed the higher WUE of Eucalyptus camaldulensis (1.3783 g/L) as compared to Tamarix aphylla (0.9858 g/L) showing an increase of 23.92%. Eucalyptus plantations on marginal lands can adapt themselves to drought conditions and can produce even more biomass than slow growing native drought resistant species.

Publication Details

Page(s) 127-135

DOI 10.21162/PAKJAS/18.6626

Published Journal: Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume: 55, Issue: 1, Year: 2018

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Keywords

drought, water use efficiency, Water stress, Agroforestry, forest, Climate change