On the efficiency of water utilization by desert plants of Mongolia.

摘要

The efficiency of water utilization by the dominant plants of the steppe deserts, true deserts and extreme arid deserts of Mongolia was estimated using transpiration coefficient. The analysis showed that the mean annual transpiration coefficient ofdifferent plants was within the range 1404-4940 g. Desert plants used on average about 2223 g of water to build 1 g of dry matter. It was found that desert species used less water to build the same amount of biomass than the steppe species of Central Asia. Annual fluctuations of the transpiration coefficient of steppe species were larger than those of desert species. Data are given for 13 desert species.