Drought and Subsequent Soil Flooding Affect the Growth and Metabolism of Savoy Cabbage

An important factor of current climate change is water availability, with both droughts and flooding becoming more frequent. Effects of individual stresses on plant traits are well studied, although less is known about the impacts of sequences of different stresses. We used savoy cabbage to study the consequences of control conditions (well-watered) versus continuous drought versus drought followed by soil flooding and a potential recovery phase on shoot growth and leaf metabolism. Under continuous drought, plants produced less than half of the shoot biomass compared to controls, but had a >20% higher water use efficiency. In the soil flooding treatment, plants exhibited the poorest growth performance, particularly after the “recovery” phase. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio was at least twice as high, whereas amino acid concentrations were lowest in leaves of controls compared to stressed plants. Some glucosinolates, characteristic metabolites of Brassicales, showed lower concentrations, especially in plants of the flooding treatment. Stress-specific investment into different amino acids, many of them acting as osmolytes, as well as glucosinolates, indicate that these metabolites play distinct roles in the responses of plants to different water availability conditions. To reduce losses in crop production, we need to understand plant responses to dynamic climate change scenarios.