From your question I deduce ...
Published by maarten waterloo, Senior ecohydrologist at Acacia Water
From your question I deduce that you are talking about annual water use of the tree rather than the moisture content of the tree itself. In comparison to grass vegetation, annual water use will be higher. This is because of the higher rainfall interception of trees (10-20% of P) in comparison to grass (<5%). Furthermore, non-irrigated grass will have seasonal water use due to its dormant stage, whereas the prosopis will transpire throughout the year, also because with its deep roots it has a much larger reservoir of water in the soil.
In general, you could estimate water use from potential evaporation (>2000 mm/y in Oman) using crop and moisture stress factors and taking into account rainfall interception loss. My estimate would be that annual water use of non-irrigated prosopis , or any other tree for that matter, planted to have closed canopy would exceed 1000 mm/y. That of groundwater irrigated date palm plantations exceeds 2000 mm/y. With substantially lower rainfall and groundwater recharge in Oman, this would not be sustainable. The annual actual use, however, also depends on the tree planting density and at low density (few trees per ha) water use would be reduced a lot and if the tree root system could enhance soil structure, infiltration and groundwater recharge it may become sustainable. I would be curious what alternative land use/cover would be considered, why you would be considering prosopis , and if there are native trees that could be an option.
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maarten waterloo Thank you for this wonderful explanation ........would you please help me little more on this, if we truly consider it with respect to moisture content of the tree itself in Oman geographical condition.
Published by Aby Saxen, Manager Expert Cell & DME at Oges G (Pte) Ltd
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Moisture content differs between tree parts with highest levels in the leaves. Most of the biomass is in the stem/root system though. Moisture content is expressed as the fraction of moisture (fresh-dry mass) and oven dry (105 Celsius) matter mass ( is (Mf-Md)/Md *100%). A value of 100% is then equal mass of water to oven dry wood. Most tree species have moisture contents below 100% and this may also decrease with age of the tree. For Prosopis juliflora I found a value of 32.6% at a dry wood density of nearly 900 kg/m3 in Kenya (http://bft.cirad.fr/cd/BFT_298_25-36.pdf). I would think that this value would be similar for P. julifora when grown in Oman. Note that in other fuel wood studies lower moisture contents are cited, but then samples were dried before going into the oven. I hope that this helps...
Published by maarten waterloo, Senior ecohydrologist at Acacia Water