Waterlogging induced oxidative stress and the mortality of the Antarctic plant, Deschampsia antarctica

Abstract

We investigated the mortality and the oxidative damages of Deschampsia antarctica in response to waterlogging stress. In field, we compared the changes in the density of D. antarctica tuft at the two different sites over 3 years. The soil water content at site 2 was 6-fold higher than that of site 1, and the density of D. antarctica tuft decreased significantly by 55.4% at site 2 for 3 years, but there was no significant change at site 1. Experimental results in growth chamber showed that the H2O2 and malondialdehyde content increased under root-flooding treatment (hypoxic conditions—deficiency of O2), but any significant change was not perceptible under the shoot-flooding treatment (anoxic condition—absence of O2). However, total chlorophyll, soluble sugar, protein content, and phenolic compound decreased under the shoot-flooding treatment. In addition, the catalase activity increased significantly on the 1st day of flooding. These results indicate that hypoxic conditions may lead to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species, and anoxic conditions can deplete primary metabolites such as sugars and protein in the leaf tissues of D. antarctica. Under present warming trend in Antarctic Peninsula, D. antarctica tuft growing near the shoreline might more frequently experience flooding due to glacier melting and inundation of seawater, which can enhance the risk of this plant mortality.