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Effect of salt stress on germination and seedling growth of Prosopis juliflora (Sw.)

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Abstract

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of salts on seed germination and seedling growth of Prosopis juliflora. The experiment was carried out in Forestry Laboratory at Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Iran. The collected seeds were treated with boiling water and H2SO4 then left to germinate in controlled growth chamber. Seed were grown under salinity levels 100, 200 and 300 mM of CaCl2, NaH2PO4, KNO3 and KH2PO4. Germination parameters and various seedling growth variables such as root and stem length, seedlings fresh and dry weight were measured after 56 days. Results showed that germination percentage significantly decreased as the salinity level of medium increased. Salinity treatments at 100 mM enhanced the percentage of seeds germination and significantly improved the germination index and seeds stamina. In this study, the best treatment was 100 mM salinity for biomass production of seedlings. For Prosopis juliflora, 100 mM salinity significantly enhanced both germination and biomass production.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University for a research grant in support of this project. Moreover, the authors wish to thank the helpful comments from anonymous reviewers, whose remarks and indications significantly improved the original manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran

    Seyed Mohammad Hosseini Nasr

  2. Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Mazandaran, Iran

    Aidin Parsakhoo & Hamed Naghavi

  3. Department of Rangeland, Faculty of Natural Resources, Mazandaran University, Sari, Iran

    Sekineh Kiani Savad Koohi

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  1. Seyed Mohammad Hosseini Nasr
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  2. Aidin Parsakhoo
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  3. Hamed Naghavi
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  4. Sekineh Kiani Savad Koohi
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Correspondence to Aidin Parsakhoo.

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Hosseini Nasr, S.M., Parsakhoo, A., Naghavi, H. et al. Effect of salt stress on germination and seedling growth of Prosopis juliflora (Sw.). New Forests 43, 45–55 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-011-9265-9

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