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Water source partitioning among trees growing on shallow karst soils in a seasonally dry tropical climate

  • Ecophysiology
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Abstract

The sources of water used by woody vegetation growing on karst soils in seasonally dry tropical regions are little known. In northern Yucatan (Mexico), trees withstand 4–6 months of annual drought in spite of the small water storage capacity of the shallow karst soil. We hypothesized that adult evergreen trees in Yucatan tap the aquifer for a reliable supply of water during the prolonged dry season. The naturally occurring concentration gradients in oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes in soil, bedrock, groundwater and plant stem water were used to determine the sources of water used by native evergreen and drought-deciduous tree species. While the trees studied grew over a permanent water table (9–20 m depth), pit excavation showed that roots were largely restricted to the upper 2 m of the soil/bedrock profile. At the peak of the dry season, the δ18O signatures of potential water sources for the vegetation ranged from 4.1 ± 1.1‰ in topsoil to −4.3 ± 0.1‰ in groundwater. The δ18O values of tree stem water ranged from −2.8 ± 0.3‰ in Talisia olivaeformis to 0.8 ± 1‰ in Ficus cotinifolia, demonstrating vertical partitioning of soil/bedrock water among tree species. Stem water δ18O values were significantly different from that of groundwater for all the tree species investigated. Stem water samples plotted to the right of the meteoric water line, indicating utilization of water sources subject to evaporative isotopic enrichment. Foliar δ13C in adult trees varied widely among species, ranging from −25.3 ± 0.3‰ in Enterolobium cyclocarpum to −28.7 ± 0.4‰ in T. olivaeformis. Contrary to initial expectations, data indicate that native trees growing on shallow karst soils in northern Yucatan use little or no groundwater and depend mostly on water stored within the upper 2–3 m of the soil/bedrock profile. Water storage in subsurface soil-filled cavities and in the porous limestone bedrock is apparently sufficient to sustain adult evergreen trees throughout the pronounced dry season.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Angela López, Season Snyder and Roberto Lepe for their help with laboratory and field work. This research was supported by a UC MEXUS-CONACYT grant awarded jointly by the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States, and the Mexican Comisión Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología . We also thank the American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI Project: Biogeochemical Cycles under Land Use Change in the Semiarid Americas) for support. J. I .Querejeta acknowledges a postdoctoral Fulbright Fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. The editor (Todd Dawson) and two anonymous reviewers made suggestions that greatly improved an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Conservation Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    José Ignacio Querejeta, Héctor Estrada-Medina & Michael F. Allen

  2. Departamento de Manejo y Conservación de Recursos Naturales Tropicales (PROTROPICO), Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (FMVZ-UADY), Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico

    Héctor Estrada-Medina & Juan José Jiménez-Osornio

  3. Departamento de Conservación de Suelos y Aguas, Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CEBAS-CSIC), P.O. Box 4195, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain

    José Ignacio Querejeta

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  1. José Ignacio Querejeta
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  2. Héctor Estrada-Medina
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Correspondence to José Ignacio Querejeta.

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Communicated by Todd Dawson.

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Querejeta, J.I., Estrada-Medina, H., Allen, M.F. et al. Water source partitioning among trees growing on shallow karst soils in a seasonally dry tropical climate. Oecologia 152, 26–36 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0629-3

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