Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology >
Extreme drought effects on nonstructural carbohydrates of dominant plant species in a meadow grassland
Online published: 2020-03-26
Supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China(31971465);National Natural Science Foundation of China(41603080);Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDA23080401)
Aims Plant nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) produced by photosynthesis can reflect the responses of plants and/or ecosystem to environmental changes. Climate models recently predicted an increase in the frequency and duration of extreme drought (ED) events that could profoundly impact ecosystem structure and functions. Yet, less is understood about the response patterns of different plant species and functional groups to extreme drought.
Methods Here we studied the effects of extreme drought on the NSCs of dominant species belonging to different functional groups in grasslands. To achieve ED, we experimentally reduced precipitation amounts by 66% during four consecutive growing seasons in a meadow steppe in Hulunbeier, North China. The NSCs of six plants grouped into two functional groups (i.e., grass and non-grass) were examined.
Important findings We found different species responded differently to drought, due to their differences in plant biological characteristics, photosynthetic characteristics and physiological ecology. This result implied that different species used different NSC-use strategies to cope with drought stress, resulting in different responses of their biomass to extreme drought. Extreme drought significantly increased the starch concentrations, and had no effect on the soluble sugar concentrations of the grass functional group. Contrarily, ED significantly increased the soluble sugar concentrations, and had no significant effects on the starch concentrations of the non-grass functional group. These results indicate that grasses moderately use and store photosynthate to cope with drought stress, hence their biomass was less sensitive. The biomass of the non-grasses was more sensitive perhaps because they maximally utilize soluble sugar for plant growth, defense and reproduction. Our results showed that different species or functional groups exhibit different NSC-use strategies to cope with drought stress. This study could provide scientific data for predicting future ecosystem responses to extreme drought.
SONG Lin, LUO Wen-Tao, MA Wang, HE Peng, LIANG Xiao-Sa, WANG Zheng-Wen . Extreme drought effects on nonstructural carbohydrates of dominant plant species in a meadow grassland[J]. Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, 2020 , 44(6) : 669 -676 . DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2019.0331
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