To get more insights into antioxidant changes regarding
drought intensity and period of treatment, a principal components
analysis (PCA) was applied to the different parameters studied to
identify the highest variability components (Table 2 and Fig. 7). The
analysis of all parameters considering both drought and rewatering
conditions (Fig 7a) showed two components,
PC1 accounting for 80.1% and PC2 representing 8.1% of total
variance. PC1 was associated with the intensity of drought
Table 1
Changes in total ascorbate (ASC + DHA), reduced ascorbate (ASC) and the oxidized form (DHA) (mmol g
treatment being the highest differences observed between