Abstract
We tested whether a trade-off exists between tolerance to flooding and tolerance to drought in wetland plants by assessing biomass accumulation, relative growth rate (RGR), survival rate, and physiological response of three wetland plants growing in drought or flooded environments. In wetlands of China’s Sanjiang Plain, Carex lasiocarpa typically occurs at low elevations (10–50 cm water depths), Carex limosa at medial elevation (10–30 cm depths), and Deyeuxia angustifolia at high elevation (0–10 cm depths). Plants of three species were subjected to flooding and drought treatments (25 days) in a greenhouse experiment. In the flooding treatments, biomass accumulation (range 0.007–0.031 g per plant) and survival rate (11%) were lowest in D. angustifolia. Relative growth rate (RGR) was highest in C. lasiocarpa (-0.006 d−1), intermediate in C. limosa (-0.051 d−1), and lowest in D. angustifolia (-0.118 d−1) at the end of the flooding experiment. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity in C. lasiocarpa and C. limosa increased with flooding time, whereas ADH in D. angustifolia did not vary over the experimental period. These results indicated that tolerance to flooding from highest to lowest among the three species was: C. lasiocarpa > C. limosa > D. angustifolia. In the drought experiment, RGR was lower in C. lasiocarpa, but higher in C. limosa and D. angustifolia. At this experiment’s end, only D. angustifolia plants still survived. Under drought conditions, production of malondialdehyde (MDA, an indicator for assessing a plant’s ability to tolerate drought) showed the same pattern as ADH production under flooded conditions for all species. These results indicated that tolerance to drought from highest to lowest among the three species was: D. angustifolia > C. limosa > C. lasiocarpa. Our experiments indicate that a trade-off exists between tolerance to flooding and tolerance to drought in the three marsh plants.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Agrawal, A. A., J. K. Conner, and J. R. Stinchcombe. 2004. Evolution of plant resistance and tolerance to frost damage. Ecology Letters 7: 1199–1208.
Armstrong, W. and M. C. Drew. 2002. Root growth and metabolism under oxygen deficiency. p. 729–61. In Y. Waisel, A. Eshel, and U. Kafkafi (eds.) Plant Roots: The Hidden Half. Marcel Dekker, New York, NY, USA.
Banga, M., C. W. P. M. Blom, and L. A. C. J. Voesenek. 1995. Flood-induced leaf elongation in Rumex species: effects of water depth and water movements. New Phytologist 131: 191–98.
Bell, D. L. and S. E. Sultan. 1999. Dynamic phenotypic plasticity for root growth in Polygonum: a comparative study. American Journal of Botany 86: 807–19.
Blom, C. W. P. M. 1999. Adaptations to flooding stress: from plant community to molecule. Plant Biology 1: 261–73.
Blom, C. W. P. M. and L. A. C. J. Voesenek. 1996. Flooding: the survival strategies of plants. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 11: 290–95.
Cakmak, I. and W. J. Horst. 1991. Effect of aluminum on lipid peroxidation, Superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidase activities in root tips of soybean (Glycine max). Physiologia Plantarum 83: 463–68.
Chaves, M. M., J. P. Maroco, and J. S. Pereira. 2003. Understanding plant responses to drought—from genes to the whole plant. Functional Plant Biology 30: 239–64.
Elberse, I. A. M., J. M. M. van Damme, and P. H. van Tienderdn. 2003. Plasticity of growth characteristics in wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) in response to nutrient limitation. Journal of Ecology 91: 371–82.
Fraser, L. H. and J. P. Karnezis. 2005. A comparative assessment of seeding survival and biomass accumulation for fourteen wetland plant species growth under minor water-depth differences. Wetlands 25: 520–30.
Fritz, K. M. and W. K. Dodds. 2004. Tolerance and resilience of macroinvertebrate assemblages to drying and flood in a tall grass prairie stream system. Hydrobiologia 527: 99–112.
Geigenberger, P. 2003. Response of plant metabolism to too little oxygen. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 6: 247–56.
Hernandez, J. A. and M. S. Almansa. 2002. Short-term effects of salt stress on antioxidant systems and leaf water relations of leaves. Physiologia Plantarum 115: 251–57.
Hsiao, T. C. and L. K. Xu. 2000. Sensitivity of growth of roots versus leaves to water stress: biophysical analysis and relation to water transport. Journal of Experimental Botany 51: 1595–1616.
Ji, Y. H., L. X. Guo, Y. Qing, and K. Y. Zhao. 2004. The succession character of Carex lasiocarpa community in the Sanjiang Plain. Wetland Science 2: 140–44. (in Chinese).
Ji, Y. H. and J. H. Luan. 2004. The character and the mechanism of the vegetation development in Sanjiang Plain in the past fifty years. Journal of Nanjing Forestry University (Natural Sciences Edition) 28: 79–82. (in Chinese).
Justin, S. H. F. W. and W. Armstrong. 1987. The anatomical characteristics of roots and plant response to soil flooding. New Phytologist 106: 465–95.
Laan, P. and C. W. P. M. Blom. 1990. Growth and survival responses of Rumex species to flooded and submerged conditions: the importance of shoot elongation, underwater photosynthesis and reserve carbohydrates. Journal of Experimental Botany 41: 775–83.
Lenssen, J. P. M. and H. de Kroon. 2005. Abiotic constraints at the upper boundaries of two Rumes species on a freshwater flooding gradient. Journal of Ecology 93: 138–47.
Li, Y., Y. Xie, B. Ren, W. Luo, and J. Huang. 2007. Oxygen enhances the recovery of Potamogeton maackianus from prolonged exposure to very low irradiance. Aquatic Botany 86: 295–99.
Linhart, Y. B., K. A. Monney, M. A. Snyder, and N. Swoboda-Colberg. 2001. Phloem chemistry: effects of genotype and environment and implications for nutritional ecology. International Journal of Plant Sciences 162: 1009–16.
McMahon, T. A. and B. L. Finlayson. 2003. Droughts and antidroughts: the low-flow hydrology of Australian rivers. Freshwater Biology 48: 1147–60.
Mitsch, W. J. and J. G. Gosselink. 2000. Wetlands, third edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
Munne-Bosch, S. and L. Alegre. 2002. Plant aging increases oxidative stress in chloroplasts. Planta 214: 608–15.
Nunze-Elisea, R., B. Schaffer, J. B. Fisher, A. M. Colls, and J. H. Crane. 1999. Influence of flooding on net CO2 assimilation, growth and stem anatomy of Annona Species. Annals of Botany 84: 771–80.
Pagter, M., C. Bragato, and H. Brix. 2005. Tolerance and physiological responses of Phragmites australis to water deficit. Aquatic Botany 81: 285–99.
Pezeshki, S. R., J. H. Pardue, and R. D. DeLaune. 1996. Leaf gas exchange and growth of flood-tolerant and flood-sensitive tree species under low soil redox conditions. Tree Physiology 16: 453–58.
Silvertown, J. W., M. E. Dodd, and D. J. G. Gowing. 2001. Phylogeny and the niche structure of meadow plant communities. Journal of Ecology 89: 428–35.
Sofo, A., B. Dichio, C. Xiloyannis, and A. Masia. 2004. Lipoxygenase activity and proline accumulation in leaves and roots of olive trees in response to drought stress. Physiologia Plantarum 121: 58–65.
Sorrell, B. K. 2004. Regulation of root anaerobiosis and carbon translocation by light and root aeration in Lsoetes alpinus. Plant Cell and Environment 27: 1102–11.
Tang, Z. C. 1999. Manual of modern plant physiology experiments. Science Press, Beijing, China. (in Chinese).
Taylor, N. L., D. A. Day, and A. H. Millar. 2004. Targets of stress-induced oxidative damage in plant mitochondria and their impact on cell carbon/nitrogen metabolism. Journal of Experimental Botany 55: 1–10.
Van der Sman, A. J. M., N. N. Joosten, and C. W. P. M. Blom. 1993. Flooding regimes and life history characteristics of short-lived species in river forelands. Journal of Ecology 81: 121–30.
Vervuren, P. J. A., C. W. P. M. Blom, and H. de Kroon. 2003. Extreme flooding events on the Rhine and the survival and distribution of riparian plant species. Journal of Ecology 91: 135–46.
Visser, E. J. W., G. M. Bogemann, H. M. Van de Streeg, R. Pierik, and C. W. P. M. Blom. 2000. Flooding tolerance of Carex species in relation to field distribution and aerenchyma formation. New Phytologist 148: 93–103.
Voesenek, L. A. C. J., J. H. G. M. Rijnders, A. J. M. Peeters, H. M. van de Steeg, and H. de Kroon. 2004. Plant hormones regulate fast shoot elongation under water: from genes to communities. Ecology 85: 16–27.
Wilhite, D. A. 2000. Drought as a natural hazard. p. 33–40. In D. A. Wilhite (ed.) Drought: A Global Assessment. Routledge, London, UK.
Xie, Y., S. An, and B. Wu. 2005. Resource allocation in the submerged plant Vallisneria natans related to sediment type, rather than water-column nutrients. Freshwater Biology 50: 391–402.
Xie, Y., W. Luo, B. Ren, and F. Li. 2007. Morphological and physiological response to sediment type and light availability in roots of the submerged plant Myriophyllum spicatum. Annals of Botany 100: 1517–23.
Yi, F. K., C. H. Li, K. Y. Zhao, and S. Q. Ding. 1985. Study on vegetation type in the Sanjiang Plain. p. 162–71. In X. T. Huang (ed.) Study on Marsh in China. Science Press, Beijing, China. (in Chinese).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Luo, W., Song, F. & Xie, Y. Trade-off between tolerance to drought and tolerance to flooding in three wetland plants. Wetlands 28, 866–873 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1672/07-225.1
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1672/07-225.1