Abstract:In north of China, the vegetation for wind protection and sand fixation was widely planted in last decades, playing an important ecological role in improving the agro-ecological systems in the region. Sustaining the desired functions of the plantations requires their stability of growth and development. Caragana microphylla, a species belonging to legume family, is a popularly adopted shrub for fixing moving sand dunes in Keerqin Desert, northern China. In the growing season of 1997, a severe drought lasted...