Correlation Analysis between Aroma Components and Ecological Factors of ‘Hongdeng’ Cherry in Different Producing Areas

In order to explore the effect of ecological factors on the aroma of cherry fruit, the aroma differences of 'Hongdeng' cherry from different ecological conditions in China were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and principal component analysis (PCA). Pearson correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) were used to analyze the correlation between the aroma and ecological factors of habitats. The results showed different results of types and contents of volatile compounds in different regions. ‘Hongdeng’ cherry in Shanxi had the highest amount of volatile compounds. Especially, more than 95% of the total content of volatile compounds were aldehydes. The total content of volatile compounds of ‘Hongdeng’ cherry in Shaanxi was the lowest, only 23493.07 μg/L. Among them, eight kinds of characteristic volatile compounds were found in Shandong ‘Hongdeng’ cherry. Ecological factors, especially annual accumulated temperature, annual sunshine hours and annual precipitation, had significant effects on cherry aroma. The annual sunshine hours was positively correlated to 75% volatile compounds, especially ketone aroma (R²=0.89, P<0.05). 84.4% volatile compounds showed positive correlation with annual accumulated temperature and negative correlation with annual precipitation. However, ester aroma showed a significantly negative correlation (R²=−0.979) with annual accumulated temperature (P<0.01). The results conduce to further understand the relationship between metabolism synthesis of aroma substances and ecological factors, and it is significant for revealing the influence of environment on fruit aroma substance.