Droughts make plants stronger?Xiamen University team reveals mystery

Author:Xiamen Daily Time:2022.06.26

"Those who can't kill us will eventually make us stronger." This famous saying of philosopher Nietzsche may be well versed in this -recently, a scientific research consisting of Xiamen University and Switzerland and Germany's research institutions The team found that the drought of the plant species failed to "kill" can make different plant species better in response to drought.

Recently, the results of this research have been published online at the subsidiary "Nature-Communication", a subsidiary of the top international academic journal "Nature". Chen Yuxin, an associate professor at the School of Environment and Ecology of Xiamen University, is the first author and communication author of the paper.

▲ The research team conducted a biological diversity survey in Wuyi Mountain.

Mixed plant

Will remember "drought experience"

Chen Yuxin said that they conducted experiments on a single species of cultivation and mixed species. "Mixed seeds" refers to planting two different species of plants together.

Why can mixed plants better cope with drought? Chen Yuxin and the team members analyzed the reasons behind him, which may be related to "complementarity between species".

After many droughts, different plants planted together seem to be tacitly "reached a certain agreement" and changed from the competition relationship that originally strived to seize resources to mutual concessions. stay alive.

In vernacular, plants seem to have formed a "memory" of "suffering" in the past, but this kind of memory magic can be exerted only under the conditions of different species of life -when biological diversity is high, various plants have the resources of resources on resources. The competition is weak, so that different species can recover quickly after drought, thereby promoting the maintenance of biodiversity and the stability of the ecosystem.

Chen Yuxin said that if we let the species separate, this memory magic will fail: the competition of a single species for resources is fierce, and it is difficult for plants to recover after drought.

In other words, the use of various species of plant descendants that has been "suffering" has formed a better division of labor.

It can be seen that if biological diversity is increased, the complementarity between species will also be enhanced, and the function of the ecosystem will be more stable.

Nature owns

Your own "wisdom"

After the thesis was published, this group of scientists with "花论论论" often asked a question: What is the meaning of adhering to the study of nearly ten years? When Chen Yuxin was asked by this reporter, he stagnated for a few seconds and said that he should start with the contradiction.

He said that increasing biodiversity can alleviate global climate change, so we must protect biodiversity. However, there are actually contradictions: climate change is one of the culprits that threaten biological diversity. The implication is that how can we ensure that biological diversity can survive the climate change, but also further allow biodiversity to sustain Ground to help climate change relief? Chen Yuxin's team's hard -searched "inter -seed complementarity" is the key to solving the puzzle.

In other words, in a sense, this research provides new opinions for how the ecosystem responds and adapts to more frequent extreme climate events -nature has its own "wisdom", and biodiversity provides plant response and adapting to drought provides drought provides drought provides drought provides drought. Various evolutionary potential.

Bernhard Schmid, a professor from the University of Zurich, a thesis, explained: "The results of the study means that if the research results want to improve the adaptability of the ecosystem to the future climate, different plant species must go through the test of extreme climate events. The result is of great significance for the protection of biodiversity under climate change. "Chen Yuxin said:" This reminds us that only by protecting the current biodiversity can we better cope with future global climate change. "

【Behind the scenes】

Several generations of teachers and students relay research

Chen Yuxin

▲ Plant seeds are cultivated in about 1,000 flower pots in the greenhouse.

Chen Yuxin, 34, graduated from Sun Yat -sen University undergraduate, master and doctorate. In 2016, he went to the study of the impact of this drought on the impact on plants; in 2019, he came to Xiamen University The mystery of drought.

To be precise, he is the study of "relay". Chen Yuxin said that the study continued for nearly ten years before and after, and was completed by generations from different units.

In the experiment, Chen Yuxin cultivated about 1,000 pots of plants. The seedlings are small and fragile. When transplanting, it will be broken when it is transplanted. Therefore, the cultivation process needs to be very patient.

The publication of the paper is not the end of research. Chen Yuxin said that the research is still continuing.

Chen Yuxin said that with the changes in global climate, extreme climate events such as drought will be more frequent in the future, and it may have a negative impact on the function of the ecosystem, making the maintenance and function of biodiversity a global issue.

【Experimental Step】

1 Plant 80 grass ground communities in the wild, 400 square meters per community.

2 Each summer, some of the communities have been arid for 6 consecutive weeks, so that half of the grass is unable to accept normal rain moisturizing.

3 After eight years of experiments, collect the seeds of these plants, cultivate about 1,000 flower pots in greenhouses, and re -simulate an extremely dry environment.

4 Eventually discovery: Compared with the offspring of plants that have always enjoyed water, the offspring of plants that have experienced many droughts and "tempering" recovery faster after encountering drought, but this effect is only under the condition of mixed types. That's obvious.