Leaf Physiological Responses of Three Psammophytes to Combined Effects of Warming and Precipitation Reduction in Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China

Abstract

The decreasing precipitation with global climate warming is the main climatic condition in some sandy grassland ecosystems. The understanding of physiological responses of psammophytes in relation to warming and precipitation is a possible way to estimate the response of plant community stability to climate change. We selected Lespedeza davurica, Artemisia scoparia, and Cleistogenes squarrosa in sandy grassland to examine the effect of a combination of climate warming and decreasing precipitation on relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll, proline, and antioxidant enzyme activities. We found that all experimental treatments have influenced RWC, chlorophyll, proline, and antioxidant enzyme activities of three psammophytes. L. davurica has the highest leaf RWC among the three psammophytes. With the intensification of precipitation reduction, the decreasing amplitude of chlorophyll from three psammophytes was L. davurica > C. squarrosa > A. scoparia. At the natural temperature, the malondialdehyde (MDA) content of the three psammophytes under severe drought treatment was much higher than other treatments, and their increasing degree was as follows: A. scoparia > C. squarrosa > L. davurica. At the same precipitation gradient, the proline of three psammophytes under warming was higher than the natural temperature. The differences in superoxide dismutase (SOD) among the three psammophytes were A. scoparia > L. davurica > C. squarrosa. Moreover, at natural temperature, more than 40% of precipitation reduction was most significant. Regardless of warming or not, the catalase (CAT) activity of A. scoparia under reduced precipitation treatments was higher than natural temperature, while the response of L. davurica was opposite. Correlation analyses evidenced that warming (T) was significant in L. davurica and precipitation (W) was significant in A. scoparia and C. squarrosa according to the Monte-Carlo permutation test (p = 0.002, 0.004, and 0.004). The study is important in predicting how local plants will respond to future climate change and assessing the possible effects of climate change on sandy grassland ecosystems.

Nighttime Warming Reduced Copper Concentration and Accumulation in Wheat Grown in Copper-Contaminated Soil by Affecting Physiological Traits

“…However, at the maturation stage, the three enzyme activities were remarkably reduced by WT-CK compared to NT-CK. Previous research has found that, facing oxidative stress in plants from heat stress, variable responses in the form of an increase or reduction in the activities of antioxidant enzymes were found, but the results are usually incremental, which were consistent with our experimental results of enzyme activities from seeding to booting stages [27,43,44]. The different results were mainly related to the genotype, temperature, and duration [27,43,44].…”

Impact of deeper groundwater depth on vegetation and soil in semi-arid region of eastern China

“…The study area belongs to the typical temperate semiarid continental monsoon climate. The average annual precipitation was 351.7 mm ( Huang et al., 2022 ), with an uneven spatial and temporal distribution, in which the precipitation from June to September accounted for about 80%. The mean annual temperature is 5.8–6.4°C.…”

“…The landscape in this area is characterized by sand dunes that alternate with gently undulating lowland areas ( Luo et al., 2020 ). This area belongs to the continental semiarid monsoon climate and is in the temperate zone, with a mean annual temperature of 3–7°C and a mean annual rainfall (AP) of 350–500 mm ( Huang et al., 2022 ). In recent years, many ecological problems have been caused by rapid population growth and increased demand for land, food, housing, and employment ( Kooch et al., 2022 ), especially the decline of the groundwater level ( Maihemuti et al., 2021 ).…”

Impact of altered groundwater depth on soil microbial diversity, network complexity and multifunctionality

“…The elevation in our study site is 327 m. This region belongs to a typical temperate continental monsoon climate, with an annual average temperature of 5.8–6.4°C and an average annual precipitation of 351.7 mm. The spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall is uneven, with approximately 80% of the precipitation occurring from June to September ( Huang et al, 2022 ).…”