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Identification of aqueous extracts from Artemisia ordosica and their allelopathic effects on desert soil algae

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Abstract

Desert vascular plants coexist extensively with biological soil crusts (BSCs) in arid lands, but limited information is known about the impacts of shrub litterfall on soil microalgae. In this study, the components of aqueous extracts (AEs) from Artemisia ordosica leaves were identified, and the growth and physiological responses of two BSC-dominated algae, namely, Chlorella vulgaris and Nostoc sp., to AEs were investigated. The AEs contained humic and fulvic acid-like fluorescence components with high aromaticity. They also comprised four main chemical components, namely alcohols, phenols, organic acids and saccharides. Low AE concentrations enhanced the growth rate and chlorophyll fluorescence yield of C. vulgaris. Conversely, high AE concentrations inhibited the growth and photosynthetic activities of both soil microalgae, resulting from the decrease of superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde contents. The tolerance concentration of the green alga C. vulgaris to the AEs was greater than that of the cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. The AEs from A. ordosica exerted different degrees of stimulatory or inhibitory effects on the growth rates and physiological activities of Nostoc sp. and C. vulgaris, which might affect soil microalgal community structure and BSC formation in drylands. This study reveals the response mechanisms of soil algae to shrub leachates and improves our understanding of the role of vascular plants in shaping BSC communities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mr. Gaohong Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the Freshwater Algae Culture Collection at the Institute of Hydrobiology (FACHB-collection) for kindly providing the two strains. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31370421 and 31870432), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC1801703), the Hubei Provincial Technical Innovation Project (Major projects, 2016ACA162) and the Special Fund for Forest Scientific Research in the Public Welfare (201404204).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Hubei Key Laboratory of Biomass, Resources Chemistry and Environmental Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Luoyu Road 129, Wuhan, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangjun Zhou, Yurui Zhang, Xinyue Ma, Chaoran Ye & Lanzhou Chen

  2. Inner Mongolia Academy of Forestry, Hohhot, 010020, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoliang An

  3. Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, Florence University, Via Maragliano 77, 50144, Florence, Italy

    Roberto De Philippis

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  1. Xiangjun Zhou
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  2. Yurui Zhang
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  4. Roberto De Philippis
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  5. Xinyue Ma
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Correspondence to Lanzhou Chen.

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Communicated by Marko Rohlfs.

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Zhou, X., Zhang, Y., An, X. et al. Identification of aqueous extracts from Artemisia ordosica and their allelopathic effects on desert soil algae. Chemoecology 29, 61–71 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-018-00276-8

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