Subjects: Biology >> Botany submitted time 2023-03-13 Cooperative journals: 《干旱区研究》
Abstract： Populus euphratica Oliv. is an indicator species of eco- environmental changes in arid areas and it plays an irreplaceable role in maintaining the stability of a regional fragile ecosystem. At present, relevant research on the hollow tree of P. euphratica is still lacking. In this paper, we investigated the hollow ratio, architecture trait differences in living trees with hollow and without hollow, and its variation among the different aged forests in the Tarim River National Positioning Observation Station of P. euphratica Forest Ecosystem. The results showed that the hollow ratio of P. euphratica living standing trees in the study area was 17% (about 78 trees·hm-2) and the hollow rate increased with the increasing forest age. The hollow rate was related to maturity as the hollow occurrence rate of mature trees was 4.3 times higher than that of immature trees. The degree of hollowing of living trees was significantly positively correlated with the diameter at breast height, tree height, crown width, and ulcer area (P < 0.05), while it negatively correlated with height-to-diameter ratio. No significant correlation of the degree of hollowing was observed with the crown loss and crown length. The hollow phenomenon did not cause an obvious disadvantage in tree growth. The architectural traits of the living standing trees of P. euphratica showed resource- conserving adaptation characteristics with the increase in standing age. and their hollowing was likely to be the adaptation strategy of P. euphratica to the extremely arid environment.
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