Abstract: A pot experiment was conducted to study the physiological responses of 1-year old Phyllostachys edulis seedlings to drought stress. Four treatments were installed, i.e., control (CK), light (LS), medium (MS), and heavy (HS) drought stress. With increasing drought stress, the net photosynthetic rate (P_n) and transpiration rate (T_r) decreased significantly by 54.7% and 49.7%, respectively, WUE increased obviously under LS but decreased to some extent under MS and HS, Chl-a and Chl-b contents decreased significantly by 42.1% and 28.2%, respectively, but Chl-a/Chl-b was less affected, and the SOD and CAT activities as well as the MDA content increased significantly. There existed close correlations among these physiological indices. Principal components analysis (PCA) showed that the nine individual drought-tolerance indices could be integrated to two separate, comprehensive ones, and used as a reference to evaluate the drought resistance of P. edulis seedlings.

Key words: Pests, Natural enemies, Community dynamics, Peach orchards, Interaction