摘要
Gas exchange, water relations and leaf chemical characteristics were examined of twodominant psammophytes: Artemisia frigida Willd and A halodendron Turcz. ex Bess in Horqin sandy land, NeiMongol, China under different water regimes. The measurements were conducted by submitting the plantsto five different irrigation levels. A. fTigida was characterized by lower photosynthetic rate (Pn), lowertranspiration rate ( TR and lower shoot water potential (ψuw) relative to A. halodendron. Foliage of A frigdahad higher values of relative water deficit (RWD), bound water content (BWC), ratio of bound water contentto free water content (BWC/FWC) and integrated drought-resistant index (DI than that of A. halodendron.Water relations differed significantly between two species in response to soil water availability. ψw, BWCand BWC/FWC ratio of A halodendron exhibited large variation with gradual decrease of soil moisture.However, in terms of these parameters, A. fRIGIDA was characterized by higher capacity of water holding anddrought tolerance relative to A halodendron. Proline and total soluble sugar contents of A frigida and Ahalodendron tended to increase with decrease of soil moisture and the former had a larger increaseamplitude than the latter. This shows that A frigida has a higher osmotic regulation ability than A halodendron.Under the extreme drought conditions, ψw, RWD, BWC and BWC/FWC of two species were approximate,but soluble proteins degraded largely. A large amount of accumulation of organic matter, proline and totalsoluble sugars were observed in both A halodendron and A frigida. The increase in proline and total solublesugar contents and soluble protein degradation of A frigida far exceeded those of A. halodendron. Webelieve that the accumulated materials at this moment are mostly of nutrient substances available for therecovery of plants after the drought. This is one of the reasons why A halodendron plants died while Afrigida plants survived under extremely drought condition. Our results suggest that these ecophysiologicalfeatures of A frigida are favorable to its growth in the fixed sandy land compared with A halodendron, whichoften lost its dominance due to weak competition for water sources under lower soil water availability andare major factors resulting in replacement of A. halodendron by A. frigida in the later stage of sandyvegetation succession in Horqin.
