Plantations in the Gonghe Basin, Tibet Plateau

In a semi-arid ecosystem, water is one of the most important factors that affect vegetation dynamics, such as shrub plantation. A water use strategy, including the main water source that a plant species utilizes and water use efficiency (WUE), plays an important role in plant survival and growth. The water use strategy of a shrub is one of the key factors in the evaluation of stability and sustainability of a plantation. plantations used mainly 0–50 cm soil depth water and the fine root system was distributed primarily at soil depths of 0–50 cm and 0–60 cm, respectively. These sources of soil water are recharged directly by rainfall. Moreover, the long-term WUE of adult plantations was greater than that of juvenile plantations. plantation can change its water use strategy over time as an adaptation to a semi-arid environment, including increasing the depth of soil water used for root growth, and increasing long-term WUE