Plant physiological mechanisms in adapting to waterlogging stress: A review
Waterlogging stress causes low light condition, and makes gas diffusion limited, plant leaf membrane lipid peroxidation induced, endogenous protective enzyme system damaged, chlorophyll degraded, MDA accumulation promoted, and photosynthetic rate declined. To adapt to waterlogging, plants develop a series of effective physiological and biochemical mechanisms to keep normal life activity, e. g. , maintaining the balance of cell osmotic potential via regulating osmolyte contents, increasing intracellular antioxidant enzyme activities to remove free radicals and to prevent or reduce cell injury, and changing metabolic paths and regulating hormones to maintain energy reserves and lower rate metabolism. This paper summarized the research advances in the impacts of waterlogging stress on plant cell membrane system and its function, photosynthesis , respiration, hormones, physiological metabolism, and gene regulation, as well as the changes of plant ecological and physiological characteristics after waterlogging, and revealed the adaptation mechanisms of plants to waterlogging stress. It was suggested that to study the molecular mechanisms of plants in response to waterlogging and the effects of environmental factors on submerged plants and to make site-specific observations on the waterlogging stress on forests would be the important research aspects in the future.