RESPONSE OF EUCALYPTUS CAMALDULENSIS DEHNH. TO DIFFERENT SALT AFFECTED SOILS

S. Cha-um, C. Kirdmanee
Salt-affected land is a highly serious abiotic stress worldwide, especially inland salinity. Saline soil phytoremediation is a promising way to solve the problem. Eucalyptus tree is a high potential plant species with a deep root system for water absorption to prevent the salt rise-up, a large bushy to cover the surface area preventing the evaporation rate and to detoxify the toxic salt ions by organic matter. The aim of this investigation is to study on physiological and morphological responses of Eucalyptus to salinity in several field trials with various salt concentrations (0.1-2.0% salt contamination). Survival percentage of eucalypt was decreased, related to salt contamination and negatively correlated with proline accumulation. Chlorophyll a, total chlorophyll and total carotenoids contents in the leaf tissues of salt stressed Eucalyptus (2% salt contamination) were significantly degraded for 16.77, 15.10 and 18.46% respectively. The chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll degradations were positively related to maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm) (r2=0.89) and quantum efficiency of PSII (ΦPSII) (r2=0.51), leading to low net photosynthetic rate (Pn) (r2=0.82). The photosynthetic abilities including Fv/Fm, ΦPSII, and Pn were significantly dropped, relating to salt concentrations in the soil. Also transpiration rate (E) was demonstrated as similar trending, leading to reduce the growth characteristics in term of plant height and circumference. The physiological and morphological characters of Eucalyptus tree in the salinity field trials were highly adapted to moderate salt contamination (1.0-1.4% salt), whereas significantly decreased in the high salt contamination (2% salt). The basic information of salt tolerant ability of eucalyptus in this investigation may be further implemented for reforestation in the moderate salinity land as well as the effective phytoremediation strategies.
Cha-um, S. and Kirdmanee, C. (2012). RESPONSE OF EUCALYPTUS CAMALDULENSIS DEHNH. TO DIFFERENT SALT AFFECTED SOILS. Acta Hortic. 937, 1057-1064
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.937.131
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.937.131
chlorophyll a fluorescence, growth, net-photosynthetic rate, photosynthetic pigments
English

Acta Horticulturae