Screening for salt tolerance via assessment of ion levels and nutrient contents in Iranian alfalfa ecotypes

Subject Areas : Journal of Plant Ecophysiology

Masoud Torabi ¹ ( Scientific member board )

Received: 2015-09-20 Accepted : 2015-12-01 Published : 2017-08-23

Keywords: nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, alfalfa,

Abstract :

An experiment was conducted in order to screening salt tolerance in alfalfa (Medicago sativa) ecotypes on the ion levels (Na+, Cl-) and nutrient contents (N, P, K) in University Putra Malaysia during 2008-2010. Five Iranian alfalfa ecotypes including Rehnani, Gharghologh, Shorkut, Bami and Nik-Shahri were evaluated for their response to salt stress in a split plot trial, where five ecotypes were as main plots and levels of salinity including 2, 6, 12, and 18 dS/m were as subplots. To assess of ion levels and nutrient contents the samples from shoots were obtained at each stage of salinity including 6, 12 and 18 dS/m. The results showed that the nutrients content and ion levels were affected by salt concentration and there were varying responses between ecotypes. Salt stress affected the concentration of Na+, Cl-, N, K+ but the concentration of P was not significantly affected by salinity levels. In terms of Na+, Cl-, N and K+ concentrations in shoot the ecotypes were significantly different, vice versa phosphorus concentration in shoot among the ecotypes was not significantly different. It is concluded that ecotype number 2 (Gharghologh) identified as the most tolerant ecotype because of minimum accumulation of Na+ and Cl- and maximum absorption of nutrients in its shoots.