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Cotton is a drought tolerant plant which adapts the dehydrated conditions through significant ameliorations in its internal physiochemical activities. The objectives of present investigation were to examine its adaptive response to different intensities of dehydration stress under extreme arid climate of desert and quantify the extent of interactions between physiological and biochemical attributes in the course of drought adaptation. A micro scale field trial was conducted on southern oasis of Taklamakan desert, in which cotton was grown in soil buried 1 m(3) pots using four deficit irrigation levels. Results revealed that drought stress significantly enhanced the concentrations of abscisic acid (ABA), proline, total soluble sugars (TSS), and potassium ions (K+) in cotton leaves, while, rates of photosynthesis (A), stomatal conductance (gs.), and transpiration (E) declined. On an average, the plants replenished with 80, 60, and 40% irrigation, accumulated relatively 37, 98 and 155% more quantities of stress combating biochemical substances than normal plants, respectively. The stomatal density on abaxial leaf surface increased, while, aperture and leaf water potential significantly reduced. Consequently, the average rate of photosynthetic attributes reduced by 7, 32, and 52% at 80, 60 and 40% irrigation replenishments, respectively. These results suggested that decline in leaf gas exchange activities was indeed a modulating effect of drought induced osmoprotectants enrichment in leaf tissues, thus cotton plants adapted the drought intensities of desert environment. However, further micro irrigation based large scale studies on water use optimization of cotton under desert ambiances are inevitable. (c) 2018 Friends Science Publishers.