Abstract:Abies fabri (Mast.) Craib is an endemic and dominant species in typical subalpine dark coniferous forests, which mainly distributed in mountain regions of Western Sichuan, China. Due to the great sensitivity of the regeneration capacity to the climate change, it becomes the one of typical forest for studying effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystem on eastern Tibetan Plateau. To asses how Abies Fabri seedlings may respond and adapt to future climate changes, we investigated the effects of temperature elevation and litter addition on the antioxidative responses of A. fabri seedlings. Temperature elevation was created by the combined use of open top chamber (OTCs) and electrical bar, and litter was artificially added in different types. Thus, four treatments were performed in this study: 1) litter A + temperature elevation T (A-T); 2) litter B + temperature elevation T (B-T); 3) litter A + the ambient temperature T0 (A-T0); 4) litter B + the ambient temperature T0 (B-T0). A stands for the mixed litter by seventy-five percentage of A. fabri woodly litter(Woodly, W)and twenty-five percentage of Azalea viburnum shrub litter (Shrub, S); and B, the mixed litter by fifty-five percentage of A. fabri woodly litter(Woodly, W)and forty-five percentage of Azalea viburnum shrub litter (Shrub, S). The results showed that: 1) under the ambient temperature, the electrical conductivity, the malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline content, and the rate of superoxide anion radical (O2-) of A. fabri seedlings is higher under litter A than litter B; the soluble sugar and starch contents, the superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT) activity of A. fabri seedlings is lower under litter A than litter B. These results suggested that litter B will be helpful to the growth of A. fabri seedlings; 2) temperature elevation markedly increased the proline content and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) of A. fabri under litter A. However, under litter B temperature elevation significantly decreased the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), free proline, soluble sugar and starch contents, and increased rate of superoxide anion radical (O2-). Obviously, the oxidative damage of A. fabri seedlings suffering from temperature elevation is lower under litter B than under litter A; 3) the interaction of litter and temperature elevation reduced the soluble sugar and starch contents of A. fabri seedlings. The electrical conductivity, the malondialdehyde and proline content of A. fabri seedlings in B-T treatment is lower than the A-T treatment; the peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione (GR) and catalase (CAT) activity of A. fabri seedlings is higher in B-T treatment than in A-T treatments. These present results suggested that litter B with lower needles proportion will be helpful to A. fabri seedlings to future climate warming.