Plant Water Relations of Artemisia Cana and Agropyron Intermedium During and After Water Stress Preconditioning

Abstract

<jats:p>Typically, dormant seedlings are transplanted when revegetating disturbed lands to prevent transplant shock triggered by water stress. It may be possible to transplant nondormant seedlings by inducing drought-tolerant acclimation responses such as solute accumulation. <jats:italic>Artemisia cana</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Agropyron intermedium</jats:italic> seedlings were subjected to three different water stress preconditioning treatments. After conditioning, seedlings were dried down in their containers until leaf senescence, or were transplanted to disturbed land sites. Leaf water potential components and relative water content were measured. Following treatments, water relations parameters of preconditioned seedlings were not markedly different from controls in either species. At the end of the final dry-down, water stress preconditioning had not induced active or passive solute accumulation, prolonged leaf survival during lethal drought conditions, or differences in transplant survival under the experimental conditions of this study.</jats:p>