Abstract
Symptoms of boron toxicity (i.e., necrosis of leaf tips and margins) have been observed on eucalyptus trees in the San Joaquin Valley of California where the trees are being tested for their effectiveness at reducing the volume of agricultural drainage effluents. In a controlled, outdoor sand-tank study, Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn., Clone 4544 trees were grown and irrigated with combinations of salinity and B to determine their influence on tree growth and water use. Irrigation water quality treatments were prepared to simulate the Na-sulfate salinity, high B nature of these drainage effluents. Electrical conductivities (ECiw) of the waters ranged from 2 to 28 dS m-1 and B concentrations ranging from 1 to 30 mg L-1. As an integral component of this study , we developed a method to quantify and correlate foliar damage with leaf B concentrations. By scanning both injured and uninjured leaves into computer files and processing with image analysis, we were able to simultaneously correlate salinity stress with its overall effect on leaf area as well as to quantify the relative fraction of leaf area affected by specific-ion (i.e., B) injury. Leaf area was unaffected by B stress but was reduced by salinity only in the younger leaves. Boron injury was correlated with increasing irrigation water B only in older leaves. The relative injured area (RIA) of the older leaves was related to the B concentrations of leaves from trees grown at various salinities . A regression equation was developed from injury data obtained from trees grown under boron and salinity stress for 223 days (r2=0.90). From this relationship, we were able to estimate leaf boron concentrations from injury symptoms in leaves selected at random from main trunk branches of trees grown for 333 days under the same stress conditions. The results suggest that this method may have potential as an effective tool for monitoring the response to toxic levels of boron in eucalyptus, once B toxicity has been established by analytical means. The RIA appears to be mitigated by increased salinity of the irrigation water and is consistent with the general reduction in leaf B by salinity. The interactive effects of boron and salinity on foliar injury depends on the physiological age of the leaf.
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Poss, J., Grattan, S., Grieve, C. et al. Characterization of leaf boron injury in salt-stressed Eucalyptus by image analysis. Plant Soil 206, 237–245 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004488331737
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004488331737