Is the Life History Flexibility of Cold Desert Annuals Broad Enough to Cope with Predicted Climate Change? The Case of Erodium oxyrhinchum in Central Asia

Liu, Huiliang; Chen, Yanfeng; Zhang, Lingwei; Baskin, Jerry M.; Baskin, Carol C.; Zhang, Lan; Liu, Yan; Zhang, Daoyuan; Zhang, Yuanming

doi:10.3390/biology10080780

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In this study, the plant height of A. linifolium (Figure 2) decreased significantly under the drought treatment, and all plants showed varying degrees of reduction in aboveground biomass accumulation (Figure 4). Similar results were found in related studies, in which ephemeral plants showed significantly lower height and biomass in a dry spring than in a wet spring [41]. Drought stress may cause stomatal closure and decreased enzyme activity, which may limit the photosynthetic capacity of plants and reduce the accumulation of dry matter.…”

Section: Effect Of Precipitation Changes On Ephemeral Plantssupporting

confidence: 89%

Responses of Ephemeral Plants to Precipitation Changes and Their Effects on Community in Central Asia Cold Desert

Mu,

Zheng,

Huang

et al. 2023

Plants

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In the context of global climate change, changes in precipitation patterns will have profound effects on desert plants, particularly on shallow-rooted plants, such as ephemeral plants. Therefore, we conducted an experiment on artificial control of precipitation for four dominant ephemeral plants, Erodium oxyrhinchum, Alyssum linifolium, Malcolmia scorpioides, and Hyalea pulchella, in the southern edge of Gurbantunggut Desert. We measured the importance value and some growth parameters of the four species under increased or decreased precipitation and constructed trait correlation networks for each of the four species. We also compared the response of increased or decreased precipitation to vegetation coverage. The results show that drought significantly reduced the survival rate, seed production and weight, and aboveground biomass accumulation of ephemeral plants. The four ephemeral plants showed different tolerance and response strategies to precipitation changes. E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides can avoid drought by accelerating life history, and E. oxyrhinchum, A. linifolium, and H. pulchella can alleviate the negative effects of drought by adjusting leaf traits. However, the response of different species to the wet treatment was not consistent. Based on the results of the trait correlation network, we consider A. linifolium belongs to the ruderal plant, E. oxyrhinchum and M. scorpioides belong to the competitive plants, and H. pulchella belongs to the stress-tolerant plant. The outstanding trait coordination ability of E. oxyrhinchum makes it show absolute dominance in the community. This indicate that ephemeral plants can adapt to precipitation changes to a certain extent, and that distinct competitive advantages in growth or reproduction enabled species coexistence in the same ecological niche. Nevertheless, drought significantly reduces their community cover and the ecological value of ephemeral plants. These findings established the basis to predict vegetation dynamics in arid areas under precipitation changes.

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Section: Effect Of Precipitation Changes On Ephemeral Plantssupporting

confidence: 89%

Responses of Ephemeral Plants to Precipitation Changes and Their Effects on Community in Central Asia Cold Desert

Mu,

Zheng,

Huang

et al. 2023

Plants

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“…In this paper, E. oxyrhinchum was selected to investigate the effects of drought treatment on its PSII activity. At present, some researchers have studied the effects of precipitation on the isochronous germination of E. oxyrhinchum (Liu et al, 2021), the influences of snow on its seedling growth (Wu et al, 2018), and the impacts of water and nitrogen additions on its life history (Chen et al, 2019). In terms of photosynthesis, the impacts of precipitation on chlorophyll fluorescence (Zhang et al, 2022) and the influences of biological soil crusts on photosynthetic characteristics (Zhuang and Zhang, 2017) are the only topics that have been studied so far.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of drought treatment on photosystem II activity in the ephemeral plant Erodium oxyrhinchum

et al. 2023

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Drought is a critical limiting factor affecting the growth and development of plants in arid and semi-arid areas. Photosynthesis, one of the most important physiological processes of plants, can be significantly inhibited by drought. Photosystem II (PSII) is considered the main attack target when photosynthesis is affected by drought. To clarify how PSII components of the ephemeral plant Erodium oxyrhinchum (grown in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China) respond to drought treatment, we evaluated the functional activity of PSII by determining chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange parameters under different drought treatment levels (control (400 mL), moderate drought (200 mL), and severe drought (100 mL)). Under moderate drought treatment, significant decreases were found in net photosynthetic rate (Pn), effective quantum yield of PSII (Y(II)), relative electron transfer rate of PSII (rETR(II)), oxygen-releasing complex, probability of an absorbed exciton moving an electron into the electron transport chain beyond primary quinone receptor QA -(Φ(Eo)), probability of a trapped exciton moving an electron into the electron transport chain beyond primary quinone receptor QA -(ψ(Eo)), and performance index of PSII (PIabs). Compared to control treatment, marked increases were observed in water use efficiency (WUE), relative variable fluorescence at the J step (VJ), initial fluorescence (Fo), and dissipated energy per active reaction center (DIo/RC) under moderate drought treatment, but there were no substantial changes in semi-saturated light intensity (IK), active reaction centers per cross-section (RC/CS), and total performance index of PSII and PSI (PItotal, where PSI is the photosystem I). The changes of the above parameters under severe drought treatment were more significant than those under moderate drought treatment. In addition, severe drought treatment significantly increased the absorbed energy per active reaction center (ABS/RC) and trapping energy per active reaction center (TRo/RC) but decreased the energy transmission connectivity of PSII components, RC/CS, and PItotal, compared to moderate drought and control treatments. Principle component analysis (PCA) revealed similar information according to the grouping of parameters. Moderate drought treatment was obviously characterized by RC/CS parameter, and the values of Fo, VJ, ABS/RC, DIo/RC, and TRo/RC showed specific reactions to severe drought treatment. These results demonstrated that moderate drought treatment reduced the photochemical activity of PSII to a certain extent but E. oxyrhinchum still showed strong adaptation against drought treatment, while severe drought treatment seriously damaged the structure of PSII. The results of

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“…Climate change not only significantly affects the land mass of the arid zone but also significantly impacts plant growth and distribution—for example, climate change has effects across multiple plant life stages, seed germination ( Mondoni et al., 2012 ), seedling establishment ( Footitt et al., 2018 ), vegetative growth ( Li et al., 2020 ; Zhao et al., 2021 ), reproductive development ( Hacket-Pain & Bogdziewicz, 2021 ), and seed dispersal ( Hamaoui-Laguel et al., 2015 ) as well as distribution ( Bellard et al., 2012 ; Hu et al., 2015 ; Liu et al., 2021 ). Recently, ecologists recognized species distribution as a common focus of interest because it is the basis for understanding the mechanisms of species formation, evolution, and adaptation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plants have adapted to their environment over long periods and, under specific conditions, have formed a unique group of ephemeral plants. Ephemeral plants are life forms found in dry winter-wet steppes, deserts, and Mediterranean grasslands or areas with a short favorable season ( Louise & Bliss, 1982 ; Liu et al., 2021 ). Vegetative and reproductive growth quickly takes advantage of optimal conditions, such as temperature, moisture, and sunlight, etc .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential distribution of three types of ephemeral plants under climate changes

et al. 2022

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BackgroundArid and semi-arid regions account for about 40% of the world’s land surface area, and are the most sensitive areas to climate change, leading to a dramatic expansion of arid regions in recent decades. Ephemeral plants are crucial herbs in this area and are very sensitive to climate change, but it is still unclear which factors can determine the distribution of ephemeral plants and how the distribution of ephemeral plants responds to future climate change across the globe.AimsUnderstanding the impact of climate change on ephemeral plant distribution is crucial for sustainable biodiversity conservation.MethodsThis study explored the potential distribution of three types of ephemeral plants in arid and semi-arid regions (cold desert, hot desert, and deciduous forest) on a global scale using the MaxEnt software. We used species global occurrence data and 30 environmental factors in scientific collections.ResultsOur results showed that (1) the average value of the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of each species was higher than 0.95, indicating that the MaxEnt model’s simulation accuracy for each species was good; (2) distributions of cold desert and deciduous forest species were mainly determined by soil pH and annual mean temperature; the key factor that determines the distribution of hot desert species was precipitation of the driest month; and (3) the potential distribution of ephemeral plants in the cold desert was increased under one-third of climate scenarios; in the hot desert, the potential suitable distribution for Anastatica hierochuntica was decreased in more than half of the climate scenarios, but Trigonella arabica was increased in more than half of the climate scenarios. In deciduous forests, the ephemeral plant Crocus alatavicus decreased in nearly nine-tenths of climate scenarios, and Gagea filiformis was increased in 75% of climate scenarios.ConclusionsThe potential suitable distributions of ephemeral plants in the different ecosystems were closely related to their specific adaptation strategies. These results contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the potential distribution pattern of some ephemeral plants in arid and semi-arid ecosystems.

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Is the Life History Flexibility of Cold Desert Annuals Broad Enough to Cope with Predicted Climate Change? The Case of Erodium oxyrhinchum in Central Asia

Cited by 6 publications

References 51 publications

Responses of Ephemeral Plants to Precipitation Changes and Their Effects on Community in Central Asia Cold Desert

Responses of Ephemeral Plants to Precipitation Changes and Their Effects on Community in Central Asia Cold Desert

Effects of drought treatment on photosystem II activity in the ephemeral plant Erodium oxyrhinchum

Potential distribution of three types of ephemeral plants under climate changes

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