Climate Change and Dryland Agricultural Ecosystem Management

thinking manner from the visual angle of state’s development strategy. This path is: enhance the basis
scientific research of marine ecosystem; deploy the rehabilitation work research of marine ecosystem;
establish and perfect the basic framework of relevant law system and establish citizens’ participation
system of marine ecology protection.
Keywords: marine industry; marine ecosystem; ecosystem approach
Study on transpiration and water consumption of maize within a
windbreak in Hexi Corridor oasis, northwestern China
Songshuang Ding, Peixi Su*, Tingting Xie, Song Gao, Qiaodi Yan
Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Plant Stress Ecophysiology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Cold and Arid
Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 China
Abstract
In agricultural production, using water status of crops as irrigation basis is much more reliable than
soil water status. Transpiration, which is affected by the characteristics of plant itself and
environmental factors, is the main pathway of plant water loss. So, researches on crop transpiration
water consumption can provide a theoretical basis for agricultural production, particularly for
irrigation agriculture development in arid and semi-arid areas. And also, it is an important basis for the
optimizing configuration of windbreak systems. Hexi Corridor oasis is an important agricultural base
in China, and it is also a typical example for oasis ecological economy development of arid region.
Farmland windbreak, mainly consisted by poplar trees (Populus sp.), is emerging the important role in
protecting the 21.29 million ha of farmland, 63.3% of all the irrigated area in Hexi, to some extent
weakened the impact of severe weather. Transpiration characteristics and water use efficiency of crops
within windbreak is an important measure to determine crop water productivity and ecological
benefits of the windbreak. In view of these, we studied the characteristics of transpiration water
consumption of maize within a representative poplar windbreak in Linze oasis in the middle of Hexi
Corridor using Li-6400 portable gas exchange system, objective was to provide theoretical and
practical basis for water-saving agriculture developing and the optimal configuration of windbreak in
arid regions.
The study was conducted at desert oasis (39°20′ N, 100°07′ E) of Linze County in the middle of the
Hexi Corridor region in Gansu Province, northwestern China. In 2008, a Poplar-maize system of 1 ha
was established by two rows of 10-year-old Poplar trees (Populus gansuensis C. Wang et H. L. Yang)
with a north-south direction at spacing of 2 m between trees along the row, and 50 m between the
rows, which we named as 50 m Poplar-maize system. Seed sowing of maize was on 1st May and the
seeds began to emergence about 7 days later. Maize plants reached flowering stage on 5th July
(DAP65, DAP-abbreviation of Days after Planting), grain-filling stage on 20th July (DAP80) and
maturing on 20th September (DAP142). The study area comprised a randomized complete block
* Corresponding author, Peixi Su, Email: supx@lzb.ac.cn
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