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Flooding alleviates copper stress on Salix: Evidence from stoichiometric patterns among plant tissues

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Abstract

Background and aims

The increasing flooding occurrence associated with climate change, results in soil becoming more vulnerable to heavy metal contamination. However, the mechanisms underlying the combined effects of flooding and metals on the stoichiometry of fast-growing trees (potential for bioremediation) remains poorly understood. Such information is vital to understand how Salix integra Thunb ‘Yizhibi’ (S. integra) alters the nutrient stoichiometry to cope with a single or combined stress of copper (Cu) and flooding.

Methods

S. integra seedlings were cultivated in four soil Cu treatments (control, 50, 150 and 450 mg.kg−1) and examined after a 90-day flooding period. The stoichiometric patterns of C:N:P among different tissues were analyzed upon single or co-exposure to Cu and flooding. Redundancy analysis (RDA) and partial least squares-path modeling (PLS-PM) were used to elucidate the relationship between the C:N:P stoichiometry of soil and plants.

Results

Leaf C concentration negatively correlated with leaf P concentration upon exposure to Cu stress. Flooding significantly increased the leaf C:N and C:P ratios, and leaf N:P increased (3.7–46.3%) with increasing soil Cu dose. The stoichiometric patterns of C:N:P in aboveground tissues were generally affected by flooding, and the ratios of C:N or C:P were in the order of cutting > stem > leaf. The PLS-PM result implied that flooding or Cu had a significantly positive effect on the nutrient stoichiometry (C:N and C:P) of stems and leaves. Moreover, flooding exhibited a stronger effect on C, N and P stoichiometry, with standardized path coefficients of 0.83 and 0.34 in stems and leaves, respectively.

Conclusions

Flooding is a primary factor that alters the C:N:P stoichiometry in tissues of S. integra under Cu induced stress. Flooding is likely to alleviate Cu induced stress via alterations in C:N:P stoichiometry patterns in Salix tissues. Thus, plants can regulate nutrient stoichiometric patterns to cope with single or combined stress, which might be used as an indicator of stress tolerance or ecological adaptation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fundament Research Funds of CAF (Grant No. CAFYBB2019SZ001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31470619 & 31770653), and the Program for Guangdong Introducing Innovative and Entrepreneurial Teams (2019ZT08L213). The authors would like to express the sincere gratitude to editor & Dr. Gustavo Gabriel Striker and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which have greatly improved this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou, 311400, Zhejiang, China

    Yini Cao, Ran Tong, Xiaogang Li & Guangcai Chen

  2. Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, School of Ecology, Environment and Resources, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yini Cao & Chuanxin Ma

  3. China Construction Fifth Engineering Division Landscape Corp., Ltd, Changsha, 410000, China

    Jie Chen

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  1. Yini Cao
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  2. Chuanxin Ma
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  4. Jie Chen
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  5. Xiaogang Li
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  6. Guangcai Chen
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Contributions

Yini Cao: Conceptualization, Investigation, Data analysis, Writing the paper. Chuanxin Ma: Formal analysis, Writing-review and editing. Ran Tong: Methodology, Formal analysis, Manuscript revision. Jie Chen, Xiaogang Li: Sample preparation, Data curation. Guangcai Chen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Manuscript revision, Funding acquisition and Project administration.

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Correspondence to Guangcai Chen.

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Cao, Y., Ma, C., Tong, R. et al. Flooding alleviates copper stress on Salix: Evidence from stoichiometric patterns among plant tissues. Plant Soil 478, 545–558 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05489-z

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