Abstract
The response of plants to drought is controlled by the interaction between physiological regulation and morphological adjustment. Although recent studies have highlighted the long-term morphological acclimatization of plants to drought, there is still debate on how plant biomass allocation patterns respond to drought. In this study, we performed a greenhouse experiment with first-year seedlings of a desert shrub in control, drought and re-water treatments, to examine their physiological and morphological traits during drought and subsequent recovery. We found that (i) biomass was preferentially allocated to roots along a fixed allometric trajectory throughout the first year of development, irrespective of the variation in water availability; and (ii) this fixed biomass allocation pattern benefited the post-drought recovery. These results suggest that, in a stressful environment, natural selection has favoured a fixed biomass allocation pattern rather than plastic responses to environmental variation. The fixed 'preferential allocation to root' biomass suggests that roots may play a critical role in determining the fate of this desert shrub during prolonged drought. As the major organ for resource acquisition and storage, how the root system functions during drought requires further investigation.
Highlights
Climate change models generally agree that shifts in precipitation will result in higher drought intensity and frequency in the near future (McDowell et al 2011; Jenkins and Warren 2015; Mao et al 2015)
When plants are subjected to drought stress, a series of physiological indexes
We found that the biomass of H. ammodendron seedlings was preferentially allocated to roots, irrespective of water availability
Summary
Climate change models generally agree that shifts in precipitation will result in higher drought intensity and frequency in the near future (McDowell et al 2011; Jenkins and Warren 2015; Mao et al 2015). Under this climate change background, increasing vegetation mortality driven by drought has been studied globally, and has triggered discussions and predictions on the responses of plants to drought (van Mantgem et al 2009; Allen et al 2010). The response of plants to drought is controlled by the interaction between physiological regulation (short-term scale) and morphological adjustment (long-term scale). When plants are subjected to drought stress, a series of physiological indexes
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