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Responses of Hydraulic-Related Leaf and Root Eco-Physiological Traits to Silicon Application on the Salinity Stress of Oat Seedlings

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Abstract

Aims

Silicon fertilizer has been widely used in agriculture and been found to mitigate salinity stress in plants. However, studies that have examined the underlying mechanisms of silicon alleviation relating to hydraulics found that the plants respond in a various way. Thus, how silicon affected the hydraulic-related leaf and root traits need to be further studied.

Methods

In this study, a pot experiment in which NaCl and Si were applied to the plants was conducted in a greenhouse to examine how the addition of silicon would mitigate plant growth and affect the related traits of oats subjected to salinity. A variety of plant eco-physiological traits were measured after around two months of growth.

Results

The addition of silicon significantly decreased the Gs, increased leaf structural carbon, decreased specific root length (SRL), and had no significant effects on leaf non-structural carbon, leaf morphological traits and leaf chlorophyll in salinity-stressed oat. The PCA analysis clearly showed the Gs, SRL and leaf structural carbon represented the three independent traits in explaining the variation following the silicon addition.

Conclusion

The addition of silicon alleviates salinity-stress oat through three hydraulic-related leaf and root eco-physiological traits, which suggests that the plant hydraulic mechanisms are activated with silicon fertilizing in salinity.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Editideas (http://www.editideas.cn/) for providing language editing help.

Funding

This work was supported by the research funding from Yangzhou University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Grassland Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225008, Jiangsu, China

    Cheng Qian, Feilong Geng, Zixi Wang, Haifeng Lu, Xin Zhao & Xin’e Li

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  1. Cheng Qian
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  2. Feilong Geng
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  3. Zixi Wang
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  4. Haifeng Lu
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  5. Xin Zhao
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  6. Xin’e Li
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Contributions

LX designed the experiment; GF, WZ and QC led the experiments and measurements; ZX and LH helped in the measurement of leaf traits. QC, GF, and LX wrote the manuscript. QC and GF contributed equally.

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Correspondence to Xin’e Li.

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Qian, C., Geng, F., Wang, Z. et al. Responses of Hydraulic-Related Leaf and Root Eco-Physiological Traits to Silicon Application on the Salinity Stress of Oat Seedlings. Silicon 14, 12303–12313 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-022-01928-9

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