Caragana korshinskii,C.leucophloea,C.acanthophylla and Atraphaxis virgata are four important species composed of vegetation around Urumqi,and they have a great potential in recovering degraded vegetation.In this study,physiological responses of four shrub seedlings to artificially simulated drought stress were studied.The results showed that leaf water content and chlorophyll content of four shrub seedlings decreased with increased drought stress.Proline accumulation was much more significant than soluble sugars under drought stress conditions.MDA accumulation was not significant (P>0.05) for all shrub seedlings except C.acanthophylla.Our results indicated that four shrubs can adapt to arid environments by adopting different strategies under drought stress conditions,and that drought resistance in descending order of four shrubs was C.leucophloe>C.korshinskii>A.virgata>C.acanthophylla.
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