Drought and air warming affect the species-specific levels of stress-related foliar metabolites of three oak species on acidic and calcareous soil

Climate change as projected for Central Europe will lead to prolonged periods of summer drought and enhanced air temperature. Thus, forest management practices are required to take into account how species performance is adapted to cope with these climate changes. Oak trees may play a major role in future forests because of their relative drought-tolerance compared with other species like beech. Therefore, this study investigated the stress responses (i.e., anti-oxidants, free amino acids) in the leaves of three widely distributed oak species in Central Europe (i.e., Quercus robur L., Q. petraea [Matt.] Libel., Q. pubescens Willd.) to drought, air warming and the combination of drought plus air warming under controlled conditions after periods of spring drought, a short rewetting and summer drought. We quantified foliar levels of thiols, ascorbate, and free amino compounds in Q robur, Q. petraea and Q. pubescens. Our study showed that oak saplings had increased levels of gamma-glutamylcysteine and total glutathione and proline with drought and air warming. Foliar ascorbate, glutathione disulfide and dehydroascorbic acid levels were not affected. The comparison of stress responses to drought and/or air warming between the three species showed higher foliar thiol levels in Q. robur and Q. pubescens compared with Q. petraea. For total and reduced ascorbic acid and gamma-aminobutyric acid, the highest levels were found in Q. robur. In conclusion, our study showed that foliar anti-oxidant and free amino acid levels were significantly affected by drought plus air warming; however, this effect was species-dependent with the drought-tolerant species of Q. pubescens having the highest reactive oxygen species scavenging capacity among three tested oak species. Furthermore, stress responses as shown by increased levels of foliar anti-oxidants and free amino acids differ between calcareous and acidic soil indicating that the capacities of anti-oxidative defense and osmotic stress adjustment developed better on calcareous compared with acidic soil; however, this effect was metabolite- as well as species-specific.