Abstract
Heritiera fomes Buch.-Ham. and Xylocarpus moluccensis (Lam.) M. Roem. are the two most important trees of the Sundarbans. Survival and biomass increment, chlorophyll and proline concentration in leaves were investigated in seedlings of the two species grown at different levels of salinity in hydroponic culture. Seedlings were grown at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 ppt salinities for 90 days. Significant reduction of chlorophyll concentration was found with increasing salinity for both the species. Total chlorophyll concentration halved for both the species as the salinity was increased from 0 to 35 ppt (0.34 to 0.17 mg/g for H. fomes and 0.07 to 0.03 mg/g for X. moluccensis). In addition, the H. fomes leaves have five times more chlorophyll concentration than X. moluccensis. Proline accumulation in leaves of X. moluccensis was found considerably high compared to H. fomes and increase with salinity for both the species. It was quadrapoled (254 to 1462 µmoles/g) in X. moluccensis and doubled (8 to 16 µmoles/g) in H. fomes. Seedling survival was found to vary with species and salinity levels. Survival of H. fomes seedlings decreased from 83% to 58% at 15 to 35 ppt salinity and no mortality was observed at lower salinities of 0 to 10 ppt. In contrast no mortality was observed from 0 to 25 ppt salinity in X. moluccensis seedlings and 92% seedling survived at 30 and 35 ppt salinities. Both the species showed lower biomass accumulation at higher salinities. Higher biomass increment (38 to 52%) was observed for X. moluccensis than that of H. fomes(33%) at lower salinities (0 to 5 ppt) and reduced gradually at higher salinities. This study revealed that X. moluccensis is more salt tolerant than H. fomes considering higher survival as a result of high proline accumulation in leaves that helps to overcome salt induced negative osmotic pressure. But growth is reduced due to lowering of chlorophyll accumulation at higher salinities for both the species.
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