Acclimation to water stress improves tolerance to heat and freezing in a common alpine grass.

ABSTRACT: Alpine plants in Australia are increasingly exposed to more frequent drought and heatwaves, with significant consequences for physiological stress responses. Acclimation is a critical feature that allows plants to improve tolerance to environmental extremes by directly altering their physiology or morphology. Yet it is unclear how plant performance, tolerance, and recovery are affected when heat and water stress co-occur, and whether prior exposure affects responses to subsequent climate extremes. We grew a common alpine grass species under high or low watering treatments for three weeks before exposure to either none, one, or two heat stress events. We determined photosynthetic heat and freezing tolerance (LT₅₀, mean temperature causing 50% irreversible damage to photosystem II

SUBMITTER: Sumner EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9464112 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature