Physiological performance of drought-stressed olive plants when exposed to a combined heat-UV-B shock and after stress relief

Climate change scenarios increase the frequency of combined episodes of drought, heat and high UV radiation, particularly in the Mediterranean region where dryland farming of olive (Olea europaea L.) orchards remains a common practice. Nonirrigated olive plants (drought treatment) were subjected to an episode of heat plus UV-B radiation shock (DH+UV-B treatment) for 2 days. After the treatments, plants were allowed to grow under irrigated conditions (recovery). Compared with irrigated plants, drought treatment induced lower relative water content but this status was not aggravated when DH+UV-B shock was applied. Additionally, the effective quantum yield of PSII was similar in the drought-stressed and DH+UV-B treatments. Interestingly, the DH+UV-B treatment produced higher photosynthetic pigment contents than drought-stressed plants. Concerning oxidative status, the DH+UV-B treatment induced similar lipid peroxidation levels and only cell membrane permeability was higher than in drought-stressed plants. On other hand, drought-stressed plants showed higher levels of anthocyanins and proline. Our data suggest that plants grown under dryland conditions modulated some tolerance mechanisms that may prevent cumulative damages by other stressors. Moreover, drought-stressed and DH+UV-B plants were able to recover their physiological performance in a similar way. These data represent an important contribution to understanding how dryland - grown olive plants will cope with climate change.