Abstract: Based on the determinations of main physiological parameters of ginger plant grown in different compactness soils, this paper studied the effects of soil compactness on the senescence of ginger plant. The results showed that with the increase of soil compactness, the root activity and the leaf NRase activity, chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate of ginger plant declined, while the leaf electrolytic leakage and MDA content increased. The activities of leaf SOD, POD and CAT decreased with increasing soil compactness at early growth stage but were in adverse at late growth stage. At vigorous growth stage, the root activity and the leaf chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate in the soil with a compactness of 1.49 g·cm^-3 were 30.9%, 19.0% and 17.9% lower, and the leaf electrolytic leakage and MDA content were 57.2% and 26.3% higher, respectively, compared with those in the soil with a compactness of 1.20 g·cm^-3, which indicated that compacted soil could accelerate the senescence of inger plant.

Key words: increased precipitation, biomass allocation, ephemeral plant, Gurbantunggut Desert