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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (7): 1375-1384.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.547

• Earth Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Degradation of Tamarix chinensis community in desert-oasis ecotone of the Keriya River Basin driven by the decline of groundwater level

PENG Xueqing1,2,3(), CHEN Hongyang1,2,3, DONG Shengtianzi1,2,3, QIN Tiantian1,2,3, CHEN Shengjie1,2,3, WANG Hanyue1,2,3()   

  1. 1 College of Life Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, China
    2 Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Key Laboratory of Oasis Town and Mountain-Basin System Ecology, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, China
    3 Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Phytomedicine Resource and Utilization of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2025-09-10 Revised:2025-11-26 Online:2026-07-25 Published:2026-07-07
  • Contact: WANG Hanyue E-mail:20221006152@stu.shzu.edu.cn;why1993@shzu.edu.cn

Abstract:

The desert oasis ecotone in the Keriya River Basin is a crucial ecological barrier safeguarding oasis stability. As the dominant species in this region, the Tamarix chinensis community is vital for maintaining ecosystem function. However, severe degradation threats face the community and the dominant driving mechanisms remain unclear. By analyzing field surveys from 30 sampling sites along the lower reaches of the Keriya River Basin of Xinjiang in China using redundancy analysis and structural equation modeling, the aim of this study was to identify the key environmental factors driving degradation of the T. chinensis community and to identify their ecological thresholds. The following results were obtained. (1) Large-scale severe degradation has occurred across the region; 69.2% of sampling sites were classified as severely or extremely degraded. (2) Groundwater level is the core factor regulating T. chinensis community health; a decline in groundwater level leads directly to a significant increase in dead branch percentage (standardized path coefficient=0.65) and indirectly affects community coverage. (3) The optimal groundwater depth for healthy T. chinensis growth is 3.48 m, and the acceptable depth range is 2.59-4.38 m. When the groundwater depth is outside of this range, the risk of community degradation is sharply increased. This study has quantified the relationship between groundwater level and T. chinensis community degradation and identified the key ecological thresholds, thereby providing a scientific basis for the conservation and restoration of this fragile ecosystem.

Key words: desert-oasis ecotone, Tamarix chinensis community diversity, groundwater level threshold, Keriya River Basin