Estimating the water use of a sclerophyllous species under an East-Mediterranean climate: I. Response of transpiration of Phillyrea latifolia L. to site factors☆
Introduction
It is intended to manage the open area of about 500 ha of Ramat ha’Nadiv, at the souther tip of the Mt. Carmel range as an ecological park, to serve as an example of the use of scientific knowledge for better landscape management, e.g., more skilful use of the water resources for the benefit of human society. The 250 ha of the Ramat ha’Nadiv area is covered mainly by a relatively low scrub formation with Phillyrea latifolia L. as the most abundant species, which indicates the relative dryness of the land, from ecological point of view. This is in sharp contrast to the medium to high scrub formation that covers most of the Mt. Carmel range with Quercus calliprinos Webb. as the most abundant species (Zohary, 1962).
P. latifolia is an eu-Mediterranean and omni-Mediterranean species that is an integral part of the maquis and evergreen sclerophyllous lowland forest formations; it is known to be one of the most drought-resistant species. According to Oppenheimer, 1953, Oppenheimer, 1963, P. latifolia is a drought-avoiding and drought-tolerant species thanks to its morphological and eco-physiological properties. These observations were later confirmed by further eco-physiological studies, but the body of publications and the nature of the data published so far do not provide a basis for quantification of the water use by the vegetation or hydrological balance per unit area, therefore, they do not provide a sound basis for vegetation management for any specific goal.
Accurate direct determination of the rooting zone, root distribution, water storage capacity of the bedrock complex and its fluctuation, and the hydraulic conductivity is difficult to achieve, because of the extremely large spatial variation in site conditions in general and on the Mt. Carmel in particular (Shachori, 1966, Rosenzweig, 1972). Therefore, one of the ways to estimate the water use by the plants, and hence the hydrological balance in such areas is to use parameters related to plant physiology as one of the indicators for soil–bedrock complex water availability to a specific plant species. Of several parameters available we estimated transpiration rate from the heat flow velocity carried by the up stream in the trunk, which, according to Shachori (1966) is the better way to estimate the water balance of the rooting zone. Whole tree sap flow, i.e., transpiration flux per tree can be estimated by means of the heat pulse method, which permits continuous monitoring and quantification of the convective heat pulse velocity (HPV) in the trunk xylem (Cohen et al., 1981, Cohen, 1994). Extrapolation of single-tree transpiration can be used to estimate the water use by the forest canopy per unit area (e.g., Hatton and I Wu, 1995, Jarvis, 1995, Granier and Breda, 1996, Cermak and Nadezhdina, 1998). Water use computed per unit ground area is obviously the most important parameter which is directly related, on the one hand, to plant anatomical and eco-physiological characters and, on the other hand, to water availability in the soil–bedrock complex.
The aim of this study was to provide a quantified parameter characterizing water use by P. latifolia L. which drives from the integrated morphological, anatomical and eco-physiological properties of this species. This parameter might be helpful in the management of the scrub formation.
Section snippets
Sites
Four sites, each of 0.1 ha, with similar presence, cover and development of the Phillyrea bushes, were selected within the area of about 250 ha carrying the P. latifolia scrub formation at Ramat ha’Nadiv (32°23′N, 34°56′E, 125 m a.s.l.). The many trunks in each stool that have resulted from sprouting from the root collar after cutting, heavy grazing and/or past fire events (a history extending back more than 60 years) had developed to a stunt bush formation of between 2.5 and 4.0 m in height and an
Results
The relations between trunk circumference and their leaf wet and dry weights and area were analyzed by means of the general linear model (GLM) procedure. The linear regression equation between leaf-wet (X) and dry (Y) weights (g) wasThe regression equation between trunk circumference (cm) at 0.50 m above ground (X) and the leaf area (m2) (Y) wasThe overall average trunk circumference was 27.6±0.71 cm (S.E.). According to
Discussion
According to Laatsch (1967), Zöttl and Velasco (1966), Zech and Cepel (1970) in the Mediterranean region where soil depth does not exceeded 50–60 cm and the average annual rainfall is less than 600 mm, annual average water availability is the decisive factor influencing tree growth. Because of the shallow soils layer in the mountainous regions of Israel, which dry out shortly after winter rains have ceased, penetration of roots into the bedrock formations (Oppenheimer, 1955, Oppenheimer, 1957) is
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial contribution and technical support to this research by the Yad ha’Nadiv foundation and Ramat ha’Nadiv personnel; and to the Forest Department, Land Development Authority of the JNF (KKL), Israel. Research project 274-0012.
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2020, Journal of Arid EnvironmentsCitation Excerpt :Although not directly linked to tree drought resistance, this important study proved vital in interpreting sap flow patterns in other studies. In a series of studies, Schiller et al. (2002, 2003, and 2007) reported the water-use patterns of the sclerophyllous broadleaved species Phillyrea latifolia, Quercus calliprinos, and Q. ithaburensis, respectively. With these pioneering sap flow applications, Schiller et al. provided the annual pattern of tree-level and stand-scale water-use for each of the three species, and its response to the long summer drought.
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2018, Quaternary Science ReviewsCitation Excerpt :For instance, deciduous and evergreen oaks in the Lower Galilee transpire ca. 51% and ca. 44% of the annual precipitation, respectively (Schiller et al., 2010). The sclerophyll Phillyrea latifolia in northern Israel is estimated to transpire 30–61% of the annual precipitation (Schiller et al., 2002). In this case, the abundant trees and shrubs may have consumed a significant part of the Dead Sea water source, providing a potential scenario explaining the discrepancies between vegetation and lake-level conditions during 122–115 ka.
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2017, Urban Forestry and Urban GreeningCitation Excerpt :The observed decrease in leaf biomass can be attributed to leaf damage since the two tested species differ in their sensitivity to salinity. P. laurocerasus L. is sensitive to water and soil salinity (Fox et al., 2005; Ogle et al., 2007), whereas P. latifolia L. (a member of the Oleaceae family and a typical evergreen species of Mediterranean coastal maquis (Gucci et al., 1997)), is known to be a comparatively drought- and salt-resistant species because of its morphological and eco-physiological characteristics (Gucci et al., 1997; Schiller et al., 2002; Ogaya et al., 2003). This difference in salt tolerance resulted in significant differences in the percentage of leaf damage that was detected among cherry laurel plants grown on different substrates and irrigated with saline water (Table 4).
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2013, Forest Ecology and ManagementCitation Excerpt :This method is considered to be the most accurate of the thermoelectric methods to estimate sap flow (Kluitenberg and Ham, 2004), despite the inherent technical constraints (e.g., Nadezhdina et al., 2002, 2007). It has been deployed to measure transpiration in a number of planted and natural forest species in Israel, including P. halepensis (Schiller and Cohen, 1995, 1998), Phillyrea latifolia (Schiller et al., 2002), Quercus calliprinos (Schiller et al., 2003, 2010), Cupressus sempervirens (Schiller et al., 2004), and Quercus ithaburensis (Schiller et al., 2007, 2010). We used the instrumentation described in detail by Cohen et al. (1981), with slight modifications.
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Contribution from the Agricultural Research organization, The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, 50250 Bet Dagan, Israel, No. 141/2000.