Environmental shifts have important impacts on the functional traits and bioactive products of medicinal crop Cornus officinalis

Abstract

Environmental gradients play important roles in shaping the diversity of functional traits of crops. Therefore, it is imperative to reveal how crops respond to environmental shifts. In this study, a ten-year investigation (from 2008 to 2018) of an important medicinal crop, dogwood (Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc.), was conducted to reveal the effects of environmental shifts on crop functional traits and bioactive products. The C. officinalis plants originated from three main producing areas were cross-regionally introduced to study area. The key environmental factors of the three original regions (ORs) and the introduced region (IR) were monitored. The functional traits and bioactive products of C. officinalis were estimated. Furthermore, the correlations among functional traits, bioactive products, and environmental factors were analyzed. The results showed that there were significant differences between functional traits and bioactive products of C. officinalis in ORs and in IR (P < 0.01). Further correlation analysis showed that 100-fruit weight was negatively correlated with both average minimum temperature and average precipitation in March (P < 0.01). The changes of loganin content was positively correlated with those of average minimum temperature and average precipitation in March (P < 0.05). Collectively, the above findings indicate that environmental shifts (e.g., average precipitation in March) play important roles in C. officinalis bioactive products. The potential introduced regions with similar environment conditions are beneficial for yield and quality of C. officinalis. These results will provide valuable references for understanding the effects of climate change on functional traits and bioactive products of medicinal crops.