Artemisia halodendron is a widely distributed native plant in China’s Horqin sandy land, but few studies have examined its physiological responses to drought and rehydration. To provide more information, we investigated the effects of drought and rehydration on the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and physiological responses of A. halodendron to reveal the mechanisms responsible for A. halodendron’s tolerance of drought stress and the resulting ability to tolerate drought. We found that A. halodendron had strong drought resistance. Its chlorophyll content first increased and then decreased with prolonged drought. Variable chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv) and quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) decreased, and the membrane permeability and malondialdehyde increased. When plants were subjected to drought stress, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity degraded under severe drought, but the activities of peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) and the contents of soluble proteins, soluble sugars, and free proline increased. Severe drought caused wilting of A. halodendron leaves and the leaves failed to recover even after rehydration. After rehydration, the chlorophyll content, membrane permeability, SOD and CAT activities, and the contents of the three osmoregulatory substances under moderate drought began to recover. However, Fv, Fv/Fm, malondialdehyde, and POD activity did not recover under severe drought. These results illustrated that drought tolerance of A. halodendron resulted from increased enzyme (POD and CAT) activities and accumulation of osmoregulatory substances.
Evaluating physiological responses of plants to salinity stress
