Abstract:In this study, the coastal area wind and sand blowing resistant Amorpha fruticosa Linn and Pinus thunbergii Parl were used as materials to learn how they responded physiologically to intervals of strong wind and wind-drift blowing, and what mechanisms of physiological adaptation and self-repairing were involved in their resistance to wind-drift blowing and self-repairing after wind blowing. The plants were subjected to 18 m/s wind speed and wind-drift blowing (172.93g cm-1 min-1) for 20 min and allowed to repair for 24h after the blowing treatment (repair period); these treatments were repeated three times using an outdoor portable wind tunnel. Relative water content (RWC), malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, soluble sugar, and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) were measured in the leaves of the plants. The results showed that in the natural environment, there were no difference in RWC in the two species, but there were differences in the kinds of antioxidant enzyme and osmotic regulators between A. fruticosa and P. thunbergii, with the MDA content, proline content, and the activities of CAT and POD in leaves of A. fruticosa higher by 93.3%, 78.6%, 118.8%, and 650% than those in leaves of P. thunbergii. The soluble sugar content and SOD activity in leaves of P. thunbergii were higher by 111.5% and 28.2% than those in leaves of A. fruticosa. With increasing repetitions of blowing, RWC tended to decrease to a lower level, while the soluble sugar content and the activities of POD, SOD, CAT exhibited slight fluctuations in the leaves of P. thunbergii, but in A. fruticosa leaves, RWC dramatically dropped, and proline content and the activities of POD, CAT, and SOD significantly increased. Furthermore, during the repairing period, the contents of MDA, soluble sugar, and proline and CAT activity decreased in the leaves of P. thunbergii but the contents of MDA, soluble sugar, and proline decreased, and the activities of POD, CAT, and SOD increased, accompanied by an increase of RWC, in the leaves of A. fruticosa. These results indicate that water shortage induced by wind blowing was a direct factor causing physiological regulation and activating the compensation mechanism for water shortage (self-healing repair) in both trees. Although the two tree species belonged to different families and used different kinds of osmotic regulator and antioxidant enzymes in the physiological regulation of wind resistance, they both had the same strong ability to regulate physiological mechanisms during strong wind blows and post-wind repairing periods. It suggests that water shortage might activate the self-healing physiological mechanism. Under wind blowing, the increased content of soluble sugar and proline might provide materials for self-healing by improving cell water absorption, while antioxidases played an important physiological protective role in inhibition of membrane lipid peroxidation, thus maintaining membrane integrity and elasticity for self-healing. Therefore, self-healing is the key physiological adaptative mechanism for the two trees to adjust to the intervals of strong sea wind blowing on the coast.