Differential Aggregation of Nutrient Accumulation, Photosynthetic Pigment Content, and Biochemical Parameters in Leaves of Almonds (Prunus dulcis, D. Webb) in Salinity Stress

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

Salinity is one of the major environmental stresses that adversely affects plant growth and metabolism. Salt stress affects plant physiology at both whole-plant and cellular levels through osmotic and ionic stress effects. In Iran, orchard crops such as almond are mainly confined to irrigated fields. Irrigated agricultural lands in arid regions, characterized by chronic drought, extreme temperatures, and scarce precipitation, induce accumulation of salt in soils following a combination of sustained evaporative and transpirational water losses. In order to evaluate of physio-biochemical response in almond trees to salinity stress, the present investigation was carried out. One-year old almond seedlings (Mamaei cultivar) were subjected to different salinity treatments:3, 5, 7, and 10 dS.m-1). Characteristics of photosynthetic pigments (involving, Chl. a, Chl. b, Chl. (a + b) and CIS), concentration of nutrient elements and some biochemical parameters were measured. Our study revealed a strong and negative relationship between increasing salinity intensity and most of the measured parameters related to photosynthetic pigments. Our results showed a competitive process among the measured nutrients ions (amongst Na+, Cl-, and K+, Ca2+) and soil salt content. In conclusion, the photosynthetic pigment traits, nutrient element contents, and biochemical parameters measured under NaCl treatments indicate that almond seedlings studied can be regarded as salt sensitive. 

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