The aggravation of soil salinization and alkalization has resulted in the increase of diversity and succession among plant communities. In order to explore the adaptive strategy of the communities in such ecosystem, this study employed contrastive analysis on metabolites and mineral elements differences between two dominant communities in the study area, namely Puccinellia tenuiflora community (PC) and Suaeda glauca community (SC), the community succession of which was previously reported. The community succession (PC→SC) represented deteriorative saline-alkali grassland. As a result, little distinction was revealed in terms of element levels. Specifically, only Ca level increased in SC stem compared with that of PC, while Fe levels in root decreased. On the other hand, major difference of metabolite results appeared in leaf. Increased sugar alcohols and decreased sugars were observed in leaf of SC comparing to PC. Importantly, most organic acids involved in TCA cycle, photorespiration, redox reactions and glycolysis accumulated significantly, which possibly suggests an enhancement in the flow of carbon from glycolysis to TCA cycle. In addition, the variation of a few phenols, such as reduced phenylpropanoids, may have promoted the metabolism of organic acid. Combined with the analysis of correlation-based network, it illustrates that central metabolism shifted from nitrogen metabolism to organic acid metabolism in community succession (PC→SC).

土壤盐渍化和碱化的加剧导致植物群落多样性和演替性的增加。为探索该生态系统中群落的适应策略，本研究对研究区两个优势群落，即细花粉草群落（PC）和绿叶粉草群落的代谢物和矿物元素差异进行对比分析。社区（SC），其社区继承先前已报告。群落演替（PC→SC）代表退化的盐碱草地。结果，在元素水平方面几乎没有显示出区别。具体而言，与 PC 相比，SC 茎中只有 Ca 水平增加，而根中 Fe 水平下降。另一方面，代谢物结果的主要差异出现在叶中。与PC相比，在SC的叶子中观察到增加的糖醇和减少的糖。重要的是，参与 TCA 循环、光呼吸、氧化还原反应和糖酵解的大多数有机酸显着积累，这可能表明碳从糖酵解到 TCA 循环的流动增强。此外，少数酚的变化，如还原苯丙烷，可能促进了有机酸的代谢。