Drought is a critical factor constraining plant growth in arid regions. However, the performance and adaptive mechanism of Atriplex canescens (A. canescens) under drought stress remain unclear. Hence, a three-year experiment with three drought gradients was performed in a common garden, and the leaf functional traits, biomass and biomass partitioning patterns of A. canescens were investigated. The results showed that drought stress had significant effects on A. canescens leaf functional traits. A. canescens maintained the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), but the peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activity decreased, and the content of proline (Pro) and soluble sugar (SS) increased only under heavy drought stress. Under drought stress, the leaves became smaller but denser, the specific leaf area (SLA) decreased, but the dry matter content (LDMC) maintained stability. Total biomass decreased 60% to 1758 g under heavy drought stress and the seed and leaf biomass was only 10% and 20% of non-stress group, but there had no significant difference on root biomass. More biomass was allocated to root under drought stress. The root biomass allocation ratio was doubled from 9.62% to 19.81% under heavy drought, and the root/shoot ratio (R/S) increased from 0.11 to 0.25. The MDA was significantly and negatively correlated with biomass, while the SPAD was significantly and positively correlated with total and aboveground organs biomass. The POD, CAT, Pro and SS had significant correlations with root and seed allocation ratio. The leaf morphological traits related to leaf shape and weight had significant correlations with total and aboveground biomass and biomass allocation. Our study demonstrated that under drought stress, A. canescens made tradeoffs between growth potential and drought tolerance and evolved with a conservative strategy. These findings provide more information for an in-depth understanding of the adaption strategies of A. canescens to drought stress and provide potential guidance for planting and sustainable management of A. canescens in arid and semi-arid regions.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has significant cultivation potential in arid and saline–alkaline regions due to its drought and salt tolerance. This study aims to evaluate the mechanisms by which increased soil salinity and reduced irrigation affect the growth, aboveground biomass, and stem sugar content of sweet sorghum. A two-year field experiment was conducted, with four salinity levels (CK: 4.17 dS/m, S1: 5.83 dS/m, S2: 7.50 dS/m, and S3: 9.17 dS/m) and three irrigation levels (W1: 90 mm, W2: 70 mm, and W3: 50 mm). The results showed that increased salinity and reduced irrigation significantly reduced both the emergence rate and aboveground biomass, with the decreases in the emergence rate ranging from 11.0% to 36.2% and the reductions in the aboveground biomass ranging from 15.9% to 43.8%. Additionally, increased soil salinity led to reductions in stem sugar content of 6.3% (S1), 8.8% (S2), and 12.8% (S3), respectively. The results also indicated that photosynthetic efficiency, including the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), and chlorophyll content (SPAD), was significantly hindered under increased water and salt stress, with the Pn decreasing by up to 50.4% and the SPAD values decreasing by up to 36.3% under the highest stress conditions. These findings underscore the adverse impacts of increased soil salinity and reduced irrigation on sweet sorghum’s growth, photosynthetic performance, and sugar accumulation, offering critical insights for optimizing its cultivation in arid and saline environments.