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Estimating the Morphological and Physiological Plasticity of Ligustrum obtusifolium Seedlings in Response to Drought Stress and Subsequent Rewatering

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Abstract

Drought resistance and post drought recovery strategy and ability are important parameters to measure adaptation of plants to heterogeneous water environments; in addition, they are very important to study costs and benefits of plasticity. We compared the differences in multiple traits of Ligustrum obtusifolium seedlings under four water conditions, well-watered, light drought, moderate drought, and severe drought, for 30 days, as well as under rewatering conditions for 7, 14, and 21 days in the greenhouse. We observed increased levels of malondialdehyde content, antioxidant activity, and osmotic adjustment substances and significantly decreased stem height, leaf area, specific leaf area, aboveground biomass, total biomass, and chlorophyll content in response to drought stress. The root biomass and root–shoot ratio reached maximum values under moderate drought conditions. The seedlings subjected to light and moderate drought recorded physiological parameters that were similar to control levels after 21 days of rewatering. However, the seedlings under severe drought treatment did not show such recovery and only carotenoids content returned to the control levels. In conclusion, the extent of plants recovery after rewatering depends on drought stress severity and rewatering time. The early drought experience may not be harmful immediately, but it can induce active biochemical responses, to support morphological, biomass, and photosynthetic physiological traits responses under subsequent rewatering.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Forest Resources and Environment Research Center in Guizhou Province for its support.

Funding

This work was supported by the Hunan Provincial Department of Education (Grant No. [2021]352-21A0473), Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 2023JJ50258; 2023JJ50259).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture, Forestry and Ecology, Shaoyang University, Shaoyang, 422000, China

    Deng Wang, Ye-She Wang, Zhe-Zhi Li & Jia-Wei Xiao

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  1. Deng Wang
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Contributions

DW involved in conceptualization, methodology, software, data curation, original draft preparation, software, validation, and reviewing of the manuscript. Y-SW involved in conceptualization, visualization, supervision, and reviewing of the manuscript. Z-ZL and J-WX involved in conceptualization, visualization, methodology, investigation validation, and software.

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Correspondence to Deng Wang.

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Wang, D., Wang, YS., Li, ZZ. et al. Estimating the Morphological and Physiological Plasticity of Ligustrum obtusifolium Seedlings in Response to Drought Stress and Subsequent Rewatering. J Plant Growth Regul 43, 1592–1604 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-023-11208-4

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