Responses of Forest Water-Use Efficiency to Growing Season Length Across Eastern China

The responses of WUE to different patterns of growing season length (LOS) in the context of climate change are less clear. In this study, we divided LOS into six patterns and investigated the change of sensitivity of WUE to different LOS patterns along temperature gradient. Results showed that the responses of WUE to LOS vary with the patterns of LOS: when LOS is extended, the relationship between WUE and LOS is positive on average, while when LOS was shortened, it is negative on average. The sensitivity of WUE to different LOS all tended to become weaker along temperature gradient, when the LOS is extended due to the advance in SOS is relatively great in magnitude compared to that in EOS, the change of response of WUE to LOS is most obvious (Sen’s slope = -0.0147, P < 0.01).