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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Hydrology
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1572414
Sensitivity of transpiration to influencing factors at varying drought levels in Schima superba
Provisionally accepted
Xiaowei Zhao 1*
Liwei Zhu 2- 1 Shangluo University, Shangluo, China
- 2 South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
The uneven distribution of rainfall significantly affects tree water use patterns. Based on monthly rainfall, six drought levels were classified. Whole-tree sap flux and meteorological variables were monitored across these levels from 2010 to 2013 in a pure Schima superba plantation in South China. The relationships between daily transpiration (Tt) and the influencing factors were modeled using the Support vector regression (SVR) method. Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) values were employed to characterize the sensitivity and contributions of four environmental variables to Tt. The results indicate that monthly rainfall (RFt) significantly influences the sensitivity of these four environmental variables to Tt when RFt exceeds 300 mm (Level 6). Furthermore, when RFt is 300 mm or less (Levels 1-5), the sensitivity of these factors and their total contributions to Tt are independent of tree size. Our findings enhance the predictive capability of machine learning models in assessing tree water use.
Keywords: transpiration, white noise, SHAP values, Support vector regression, time series
Received: 07 Feb 2025; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaowei Zhao, Shangluo University, Shangluo, China
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