Radial growth of <i>Platycladus orientalis</i> Linn. and its growth resilience after extreme droughts along a precipitation gradient

doi:10.1007/s40333-025-0076-9

Journal of Arid Land

2025, Vol. 17

Issue (3): 381-393 DOI: 10.1007/s40333-025-0076-9 CSTR: 32276.14.JAL.02500769

Research article

Radial growth of Platycladus orientalis Linn. and its growth resilience after extreme droughts along a precipitation gradient

CHE Cunwei¹^,², ZHANG Mingjun¹^,²^,^*(

), XIAO Shengchun³, YANG Wanmin¹^,², WANG Shengjie¹^,², WANG Zhilan¹^,², SUN Meiling¹^,²

¹College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
²Key Laboratory of Resource Environment and Sustainable Development of Oasis, Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730070, China
³Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China

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Abstract

Under current climate warming, the growth resilience of plantation forests after extreme droughts has garnered increasing attention. Platycladus orientalis Linn. is an evergreen tree species commonly used for afforestation, and the stability of P. orientalis plantation forests in the Loess Hilly region directly affects the ecological and environmental security of the entire Loess Plateau of China. However, systematic analyses of the growth resilience of P. orientalis plantation forests after extreme droughts along precipitation gradients remain scarce. In this study, we collected tree ring samples of P. orientalis along a precipitation gradient (255, 400, and 517 mm) from 2021 to 2023 and used dendroecological methods to explore the growth resilience of P. orientalis to drought stress on the Loess Plateau. Our findings revealed that the growth resilience of P. orientalis increased with increasing precipitation, enabling the trees to recover to the pre-drought growth levels. In regions with low precipitation (255 mm), the plantation forests were more sensitive to extreme droughts, struggling to recover to previous growth levels, necessitating conditional artificial irrigation. In regions with medium precipitation (400 mm), the growth of P. orientalis was significantly limited by drought stress and exhibited some recovery ability after extreme droughts, therefore warranting management through rainwater harvesting and conservation measures. Conversely, in regions with high precipitation (517 mm), the impacts of extreme droughts on P. orientalis plantation forests were relatively minor. This study underscored the need for targeted strategies tailored to different precipitation conditions rather than a "one-size-fits-all" approach to utilize precipitation resources effectively and maximize the ecological benefits of plantation forests. The findings will help maintain the stability of plantation forests and improve their ecosystem service functions in arid and semi-arid areas.

Key words： Platycladus orientalis tree ring extreme drought growth resilience precipitation gradient Loess Plateau

Received: 17 October 2024 Published: 31 March 2025

Corresponding Authors: ^*ZHANG Mingjun (E-mail: mjzhang2004@163.com)

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	CHE Cunwei
	ZHANG Mingjun
	XIAO Shengchun
	YANG Wanmin
	WANG Shengjie
	WANG Zhilan
	SUN Meiling

Cite this article:

CHE Cunwei, ZHANG Mingjun, XIAO Shengchun, YANG Wanmin, WANG Shengjie, WANG Zhilan, SUN Meiling. Radial growth of Platycladus orientalis Linn. and its growth resilience after extreme droughts along a precipitation gradient. Journal of Arid Land, 2025, 17(3): 381-393.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-025-0076-9 OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2025/V17/I3/381

Fig. 1 Overview of the Loess Plateau (a) and distribution of the sampling sites and their nearest meteorological stations on the western Loess Plateau (b), as well as photographs showing the landscape of each sampling site (c1-c6)

Table 1 Detailed information and statistical parameters of residual chronologies at the sampling sites

Fig. S1 Temporal variation in SPEI_01 and P-PET using meteorological data at Gaolan station (a) and Dingxi station (b). SPEI_01, standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index at the 1-month time scale. P-PET is the actual water shortage, defined as precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration.

Fig. 2 Residual chronologies of Platycladus orientalis Linn. at six sampling sites across a precipitation gradient. (a), low precipitation level; (b), medium precipitation level; (c), high precipitation level. Data at the right side of the arrow had the subsample signal strength (SSS) values above 0.85.

Fig. 3 Correlations between tree growth and temperature (a), tree growth and precipitation (b), and tree growth and SPEI_01 (c) at six sampling sites along a precipitation gradient. SPEI_01, standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index at the 1-month time scale. pSep, pOct, pNov, and pDec represent September, October, November, and December of the previous year, respectively. * indicates the significant correlation at P<0.05 level.

Fig. 4 Differences of Rt (a), Rc (b), and Rs (c) of P. orientalis after extreme droughts at different sampling sites along a precipitation gradient. Rt, Rc, and Rs are indices of resistance, recovery, and resilience, respectively. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among different sampling sites within the same extreme drought year at P<0.05 level. Note that the significance test was conducted for the extreme drought years 2016 and 2017 with the same drought intensity under different precipitation levels and no significance tests were conducted for the extreme drought years 1986 and 2014 at the SCZ site. The black dots indicate outliers, the box boundaries denote the 25^th and 75^th percentiles, and the line in the box denotes the median.

Fig. 5 Differences in the recovery ability of P. orientalis across a precipitation gradient. (a), low precipitation level; (b), medium precipitation level; (c), high precipitation level. The equation with red color is the fitted power function and numbers with blue color are the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the intersection point of the two curves in each figure.


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