Abstract
Salts used in road de-icing during winter season inhibit the growth and development of lawn grass species. The mechanism of plant tolerance/sensitivity to such treatments is still not clear. Moreover, there is a lack of fast and non-invasive tool to detect the effect of these salts on plants growth. This study was designed to understand the tolerance mechanism of Kentucky bluegrass plants on salinity, based on some biometric and physiological parameters. In this experiment, we simulated the urban conditions where salts are used intensively for roads de-icing. Germination capacity was evaluated at five salt solutions of NaCl (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mM), and physiological parameters were measured during the tillering phase at salinity levels of 0, 150 and 300 mM of NaCl. Seeds of Kentucky bluegrass did not germinate under salinity. During tillering phase, salinity affected length, area and dry mass of roots as well as the relative water content of plants, negatively. Moreover, it influenced the maximum chlorophyll fluorescence yield, quantum yield of photosystem II and electron transport rate at early period of stress. This allows us to recommend these parameters for early detection of soil salinity effects on Kentucky bluegrass plants. It seems to be that the tolerance of this plant towards salinity is based on retaining water content in leaves that allow more efficient functioning of photosynthetic apparatus.
Highlights
Road de-icing salts are widely used in the northern hemisphere to maintain clear roads in the winter months
There was no impact of salinity on the number of shoots of Kentucky bluegrass in the tillering phase (Table 2)
We found that salinity had small effect in the initial period of NaCl application on number of shoots, as well as fresh and dry mass of plants during tillering phase (Table 2)
Summary
Road de-icing salts are widely used in the northern hemisphere to maintain clear roads in the winter months. Matters of the influence of salinity on the functioning of photosystem PSII of plants have often been taken in studies, but the results are not always conclusive. Many of them indicate that salt stress can disrupt the operation of photosystem PSII of various plant species (Jimenez et al 1997; Stępień and Kłobus 2006; Kalaji and Guo 2008). Reducing the efficiency of PSII system on the light and salinity conditions was observed in tomato plants (He et al 2009; Zribi et al 2009) and cucumber seedlings (Zhang et al 2009). There are data which indicate a high photochemical activity of PSII system under salinity (Lu et al 2002). Under saline condition plants usually adjust their osmotic potential to maintain turgor pressure. Quantifying the effect of salinity on RWC is important and physiologically relevant (Negrão et al 2017)
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