Effects of drought and re-irrigation on osmotic regulator and hydraulic function of Pinus tabuliformis
Understanding how plants respond to drought and re-irrigation is crucial for the successful breeding of seedlings in artificial forests in semi-arid regions of China,as the frequency of high-intensity drought events has sig-nificantly increased in these areas.We conducted an experiment with four drought stress treatments,including no reduction in rainfall(control),25%reduction in rainfall(mild stress),50%reduction in rainfall(moderate stress),and 75%reduction in rainfall(severe stress).We subjected two-year-old Pinus tabuliformis seedlings to a long-term drought stress period of 20 months,followed by a high-intensity drought treatment(continuous 80 days with 100%rainfall reduction).Additionally,we administered re-irrigation treatments lasting 10 days on days 10,40,70,and 80 of the high-intensity drought period.We aimed to investigate the relationships among hydraulic con-ductivity,percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity,and the content of osmotic adjustment substances in new bran-ches of P.tabuliformis,as well as their responses to drought.The results showed that under long-term drought stress,the water potential threshold at which hydraulic conductivity loss reached 50%for new branches under mild stress was-2.04 MPa,which was significantly lower than that of the other treatments.After 80 days of high-intensity drought,the proline content in new branches increased significantly by 19.9%to 226.0%compared to the initial value.Redundancy analysis showed that proline explained 40.4%of the variability in hydraulic function and was the primary osmotic adjustment substance during high-intensity drought.During re-irrigation,soluble sugars explained 29.4%of the variability in hydraulic function and were the main osmotic adjustment substances in this stage.Differ-ent factors accounted for the differences in hydraulic function of P.tabuliformis during drought and re-irrigation.Mild stress enhanced the embolism resistance under the long-term drought.New branches of P.tabuliformis main-tained normal water transport by accumulating proline in response to high-intensity drought.During re-irrigation,soluble sugars were significantly positively correlated with hydraulic conductivity,which facilitated embolism repair and enhanced the recovery of hydraulic function.
long-term droughthigh-intensity droughtre-irrigationosmotic regulationhydraulic function