Impact of Salinity Stress on Growth and Biomass Allocation of Vernonia hymenolepis in NPK-Amended Screenhouse Soil | InformativeBD

Pascal Tabi Tabot , Mfombep Priscilla Mebong , Ibeku Neni Ekole , Nchufor Christopher Kedju, Njong Nya Claudia, Ma-Nso Delphine Tataw, Tarh Betrand Mbah , Asong Daniel, Mfornten Divine Eyong,  Petang Lea Yoe , and Epie Bembesi Teddy, from the different institute of the Cameroon. wrote a research article about, Impact of Salinity Stress on Growth and Biomass Allocation of Vernonia hymenolepis in NPK-Amended Screenhouse Soil. Entitled, Effects of salinity stress on growth, Water use efficiency and biomass partitioning of Vernonia hymenolepis in screenhouse potted soil amended with NPK 20:10:10. This research paper published by the International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR). an open access scholarly research journal on Agronomy. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences | INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

Future crop production is predicted to face significant challenges from salinity stress due to secondary salinization. Therefore future-proofing crop production in these conditions is an essential path towards addressing food security. We evaluated the effect of irrigation with water of 0, 4 and 8 ppt salinity on growth, biomass partitioning, WUE and chlorophyll fluorescence of Vernonia hymenolepis A.Rich as ameliorated by fertilization with three levels of NPK20:10:10. Data were analysed for variance using the General Linear Model ANOVA procedure, after positive tests for normality and homogeneity of variance. Means were separated through the Dunnett test. Pearson Correlation was done to determine relationship between variables and these were spatially projected using the Factor Analysis procedure, without rotation. Under fertilization at 8 g NPK20:10:10 per plant, growth was stimulated by salinity increase to 4 ppt (35.43cm) compared to 30.43cm for control plants. Fertilizer application significantly improved all the biomass fractions of plants irrigated with water of 4 ppt relative to the control, while root:shoot ratios were highest for unfertilized plants indicating resource re-allocation to roots for better foraging. Chlorophyll fluorescence ranged between 0.716 and 0.727 and did not differ significantly across treatments. These values indicate that all treatments were under stress, including control plants. Values of WUE and RGR indicate that fertilization of plants irrigated with water of 4ppt salinity enhances growth and Harvest Index of V. hymenolepis, in spite of the registered stress. This is significant to future food security. 

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Introduction

Efficient crop production in the future is a priority fraught with challenges. This is because the future environment is predicted to change significantly. For good crop growth and yield, the plant interacts with the environment. Environmental parameters like soil conditions, temperature, light, relative humidity and water availability interact with plant varietal characteristics to determine the eventual growth and yield of the crop ( Asseng et al., 2015; Aggarwal, 2009). Of these environmental conditions, water availability could be the single most important consideration in crop production systems, especially water in the root zone of plants (Rossato et al., 2017). This is especially true when producing in fringe lands, in the off-season or in periods of sparse rainfall, when irrigation becomes indispensable to crop production (Siebert and Döll, 2010; Postel, 1998). Such unstable water scenarios for crop production can be expected under several climate change scenarios (Mo et al., 2017; Xia et al., 2017).

As farmers turn to irrigation, a second constraint is the availability of suitable water resources for irrigation. With reducing freshwater resources, crop lands are increasingly irrigated with water from doubtful sources (Majeed and Siyyar, 2020). A consequence of using poor quality water for irrigation is secondary salinization of the soil (Postel, 1998). Soil salinity refers to the dissolved inorganic salt content of the soil, and salinity stress in plants refers to altered morphology, physiology, reproduction etc. as a result of accumulation of Na+ and Cl- ions in tissues of plants exposed to high NaCl concentrations. Secondary salinization has been shown to result from several anthropogenic activities including irrigated agriculture (Cuevas et al., 2019; Shrivastava and Kumar, 2015). In the soil, salinity fixes nutrients and makes them unavailable to plants. It also affects the solute potential of soil water, making uptake more ATP-costly. Plants growing in saline conditions must therefore be adapted to these conditions. They develop both physiological and morphological strategies to cope with salt stress. Physiologically, compatible osmolytes such as glycinebetaine and proline are formed to stabilize membranes, DNA and proteins aid in water balance; ion accumulation, salt secretion and compartmentalization are other strategies to adjust the water balance within the plants (Tabot et al., 2018; El-RheemKh and Zaki, 2017; Wu et al., 2015; Tabot and Adams, 2014; Athar and Ashraf, 2009). Morphologically, some tolerant plants develop hydathodes and/or salt glands through which excess salts are secreted to the outside, thereby maintaining normal levels of cytosolic concentrations (Volkov and Beilby, 2017; Maathuis et al., 2014; Tabot and Adams, 2014) . There is a shift in biomass accumulation such that the root architecture is increased relative to the shoot, for better foraging for water and fixed nutrients (Acosta-Motos et al., 2017). Overall growth reduction typically results because the physiological and morphological adjustments needed for stress survival also require significant ATP and diversion of photosynthate from growth and reproduction, as well as direct limitation of the photosynthetic process through stomatal conductance control (Aslam et al., 2017).

On the other hand, susceptible plants would simply not grow, and will most often die under the effects of the stress. If this results in a cropland the loses would be significant with ramifications well beyond the farm level (Porter et al., 2014). Therefore in a future where climate variability is predicted, it is important to future-proof crop production that is, study crop growth and yield under these predicted conditions. With arable lands predicted to get increasingly saline due to both primary and secondary salinization, salinity is an important stressor of research interest. The effects of salinity stress on crop plants vary, for example in species like Arthrocnemum macrostachyum (Moric) C. Koch also known as extreme halophytes, salinity stress has been shown to improve plant growth and photosynthetic parameters (Redondo-Gomez et al., 2010). In Solanum tuberosum L., salinity stress significantly reduced growth and yield of the species (Tabot et al., 2018). Therefore species and varieties are differently adapted to salinity stress. Another line of research in salinity tolerance of crop plants is amendment of soils with nitrogen fertilizers to improve nutrient levels in the soil, the idea being to make the plants healthier and increase plant levels of nitrates which are essential in the synthesis of many biomolecules which are necessary for growth, yield and stress survival (Ahanger et al., 2019; Khan et al., 2017).

Among the important vegetable crop plants of Cameroon is Vernonia hymenolepis A. Rich., known commonly as ‘Bayangi Bitterleaf’. It is used in several dishes, and even as a medicinal plant (Mih and Ndam, 2007). It is produced year-round in Cameroon’s Agroecological Zone IV, but its production is more profitable in the off-season under irrigated conditions. In a future of predicted increases in salinity of arable lands, knowledge of how such irrigated production would fare is essential for consolidation of this crop in the future. This research aims at bridging this knowledge gap. We hypothesised that as levels of salinity in the soil increase above the ambient, the plant growth, yield and photosynthetic efficiency would deteriorate significantly, but this deterioration would be ameliorated if nitrate concentrations in the soil are improved.

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Source : Effects of salinity stress on growth, Water use efficiency and biomass partitioning of Vernonia hymenolepis in screenhouse potted soil amended with NPK 20:10:10