IUSS Salinization

1

Research Institute for Soil Science and
Agricultural Chemistry of the Hungarian Academy
of Sciences (RISSAC - MTA TAKI)
IUSS Salinization Conference, September 20-22,
2009, Budapest
EVALUATING THE ABILITY OF HYPER ACCUMULATOR
PLANTS ON SALT AFFECTED SOILS RECLAMATION
IUSS Salinization Conference, September 20-22,
2009, Budapest
EL-GHAMRY, A. M. , MOSA, A.A. and REHAM A. K,
GAMIL Soil Science Dept., Faculty of Agric.,
Mansoura University, (Egypt)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Table 4 Na, Ca, and Mg of Kochia Echinochloa
plants during both seasons.
EVALUATING THE ABILITY OF HYPER ACCUMULATOR
PLANTS ON SALT AFFECTED SOILS RECLAMATION
Table 2 Chemical analyses of soil samples after
cultivation of Kochia and Echinochloa plants.
ABSTRACT
Reclamation of salt affected soils requires huge
amounts of water for alleviation of soil
salinity, but the problem is the supplies of
good-quality water are falling short of demand
for intensive irrigated agriculture in many arid
and semi-arid region. The judicious selection of
salt tolerant plants, which are able to grow
successfully on saline soils to remove enough
amounts of salts to reduce salinity may improve
or bring easily such soils under cultivation,
among these plants kochia and barnyard grass
could be ideal plants. For this purpose two pot
experiments were conducted at the experimental
greenhouse of the Faculty of Agriculture,
Mansoura University, Egypt, to estimate the
ability of kochia (Kochia scoparia) and barnyard
grass (Echinochloa crusgalli) on salt affected
soils reclamation. Soil salinity was decreased
after cultivation of kochia and barnyard grass
under both clayey and sandy soil conditions, and
kochia was more efficient in decreasing soil
salinity as compared with barnyard grass. Soluble
cations (Na, K, Ca, and Mg), and anions
(CO3-, Cl-, and SO4) were decreased after
cultivation of kochia and barnyard grass under
clayey and sandy soils, whereas (HCO3-) anions
were increased. Nutrients concentration in kochia
and barnyard grass were varied according to soil
salinity in both soil types, and it is cleared
that concentrations of N, P, K, Ca and Mg were
decreased, whereas Na was increased.
Location of the experiment and its layout Two
pot experiments were conducted at the
experimental greenhouse of the Faculty of
Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt, during
2004 season to estimate the ability of Kochia and
Echinochloa on salt affected soils reclamation.
Two soil textures with three levels of salinity
replicate five times with kochia and barnyard
grass. Soil sampling and analysis Soils were
collected from tow different regions Sahl Altena
and Kalabsho from three location of each with
different levels of salinity first regions was
clayey in texture (C1, C2 and C3) with EC 4.42,
7.51 and 15.17 dS m-1 respectively, while second
region was sandy texture (S1, S2 and S3) with EC
1.09, 2.04 and 18.00 dS m-1 respectively. Data in
Table 1 show some physical characteristics of
studied soils samples (C1, C2, and C3)
CONCLUSION In view of the obtained
results, it can be concluded that kochia and
barnyard grass had tolerance to soil salinity.
Kochia has tolerance to salinity under sandy soil
up to 18 dS m-1 and 15.17 dS m-1 in clay soil.
Decreasing of soil salinity was observed after
cultivation of kochia and barnyard grass but
after kochia cultivation the soil salinity was
more decreased as compared to barnyard grass. It
can be concluded that frequency of kochia
cultivation decreased soil salinity than barnyard
grass cultivation in salt affected soil.
Generally, kochia is suitable to reclaim salt
affected soil which common in Egypt.
INTRODUCTION
Table1 Mechanical analysis, calcium carbonate
and organic matter content of the experimental
soil samples.
Currently at least 20 per cent of the worlds
irrigated land is salt affected and/or irrigated
with waters containing elevated levels of salts
(Ghassemi et al., 1995). The salt affected area
in Egypt represents around 9.1 M ha, while the
cultivated area is amounted by 3.3 M ha (Anon,
2006). Generally, high salt levels in soil can
cause limitation to agricultural production in
arid and semiarid region. High salinity decreases
substrate water potential and thus restricts
water and nutrient uptake by the roots, which
reflected negatively on the net mass production.
High salinity may also cause ionic imbalance and
toxicity in plants (Larcher, 1995).
Reclamation of salt affected soils requires huge
amounts of water for alleviation of soil
salinity, but the problem is the supplies of
good-quality water are falling short of demand
for intensive irrigated agriculture in many arid
and semi-arid countries due to increased
pressures to produce more for the growing
population as well as competition from urban,
industrial and environmental sectors. Kochia is
the most common annual halophytes (Khan et al.,
2001), it is able to grow in a wide range of soil
types, drought tolerant and resistant to insect
attack. Kochia exist on very highly saline soil,
it could be grown in saline conditions up to 25
dS m-1 (Rao et al 1995). Studies of salt
tolerance in members of the genus Echinochloa
have been reported infrequently. Shannon et al.
(1981) found that E. turnemnahas high tolerance
to salinities of 1 total salts. Aslam et al.
(1987) reported that seed germination and shoot
yield of a population of E. crusgalli from
Pakistan was depressed by treatments with saline
solutions. The present study was carried out to
estimate the relative salt tolerance of kochia
and barnyard grass and its ability on reclamation
of salt affected soils.
REFERENCES
Qadir1, M., A. Tubeileh, J. Akhtar, A. Larbi, P.
S. Minhas and M. A. Khan. 2008. Productivity
enhancement of salt-affected environments through
crop diversification. Land Degrad. Develop. 19
429453 Fahmy, A. A. and K. Ibrahim, (2005)
Nutritional studies on the use of Kochia indica
shrubs for feeding lambs in Sinai. Egyptian J.
Nutr. Feeds, 8 (Special Issue) 337. El-Shaer,
H. M. (2005) Halophyes as cash crops for animal
feeds in arid and semi arid regions. Proc.
International conference on Biosaline Agriculture
High Salinity Tolerance, pp 7, Mugla, Turkey,
9-14 Jan. 2005.
Table 3 Mean values of N, P and K in kochia and
barnyard grass during both seasons.
A Sahl Al tena area K Kalabsho area
Planting and harvesting Kochia (Kochia
scoparia) was planted in March 2003 and harvested
in July in the first season, while the 2nd season
planted in 20 May 2004 and harvested in August.
While, barnyard grass (Echinochloa crusgalli) was
planted in May and harvested in August for 2003
and 2004. Plastic pots of 15 cm diameter were
used and received a quantity of 8 kg air dry
saline soil. These pots were planted by kochia
and barnyard grass. At the end of the experiment,
all the plant samples had been collected, both
fresh and dry weight were determined, samples
were dried at 70oC.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Dr. Ayman M. El-Ghamry ame.egypt_at_gmail.com aymanel
ghamry_at_mans.edu.eg
Faculty of Agriculture
Mansoura University