Abstract
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an important dryland pulse crop in many parts of the world. Productivity is often limited by periods of water deficit and in a number of regions zinc deficiency occurs, but the interaction between zinc nutrition and water stress has not been studied extensively. This interaction was examined in two glasshouse experiments. Chickpea was grown under deficient (no applied Zn) or adequate (2.5 μg Zn/g soil) levels of zinc in pots for either 53 days (Experiment 1) or 40 days (Experiment 2) before being exposed to a single period of water stress that lasted for 12 days (Experiment 1) or 23 days (Experiment 2). In one experiment four genotypes (Tyson, ICC-4958, T-1587 and NIFA-88) differing in their sensitivity to zinc deficiency were compared during a single drying cycle, and in the second experiment a single cultivar (Tyson) was compared under well-watered and water stress conditions. Water stress was induced by allowing the soil to dry gradually and the responses in shoot biomass, water use, plant water relations and carbon isotope discrimination (Δ, ‰) were measured. Shoot biomass, water use and water use efficiency were reduced by zinc deficiency. Stomatal conductance was lower in zinc-deficient plants as well. Zinc deficiency reduced Δ by about 1‰ and there were significant differences in Δ between genotypes which were independent of the level of zinc nutrition. At an adequate level of zinc there was a significant negative correlation between Δ and shoot biomass and between Δ and water use efficiency among the four chickpea genotypes, but these correlations were not significant under zinc deficiency. Osmotic potential was lower and turgor higher in the leaves of zinc-deficient plants, but the ability to adjust osmotically was reduced by zinc deficiency as stress developed. In conclusion, zinc-deficiency reduced the efficiency with which the water was used for biomass production and compromised the plant’s capacity to respond to water stress by osmotic adjustment.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cakmak I and Marschner H 1993 Effect of zinc nutritional status on activities of superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide scavenging enzymes in bean leaves. Plant Soil 155/156, 127–130.
Chapman D S and Augé R M 1994 Physiological mechanisms of drought resistance in four native ornamental perennials. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 119, 299–306.
Condon A G, Richards R A and Farquhar G D 1987 Carbon isotope discrimination is positively correlated with grain yield and dry matter production in field-grown wheat. Crop Sci. 27, 996–1001.
Farquhar G D and Richards R A 1984 Isotope composition of plant carbon correlates with water use efficiency of wheat genotypes. Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 11, 539–552.
Graham R D 1984 Breeding for nutritional characteristics in cereals. Adv. Plant Nutr. 1, 57–102.
Hall A E, Richards R A, Condon A G, Wright G C and Farquhar G D 1994 Carbon isotope discrimination and plant breeding. Plant Breed. Rev. 12, 81–113.
Hu H and Sparks D 1991 Zinc deficiency inhibits chlorophyll synthesis and gas exchange in ‘stuart’ pecan. HortSci. 26, 267–268.
Hubrick K T, Farqhuar G D and Shorter R 1986 Correlation between water-use efficiency and carbon isotope discrimination in diverse peanut (Arachis) germplasms. Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 13, 803–816.
Johansen C, Baldev B, Brouwer J B, Erskine W, Jermyn WA, Lang L J, Malik B A, Miah A A and Silim S N 1994 Biotic and abiotic stresses constraining productivity of cool season food legumes in Asia, Africa and Oceania. In Expanding the Production and Use of cool Season Food Legumes. Eds. F J Muehlbauer and W J Kaiser. pp. 175–194. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht.
Jones G H and Rawson H M 1979 Influence of rate of development of leaf water potential upon photosynthesis, leaf conductance, water use efficiency and osmotic potential in sorghum. Physiol. Plant 45, 103–111.
Khan H R, McDonald G K and Rengel Z 1998a Chickpea genotypes differ in their sensitivity to Zn deficiency. Plant Soil 198, 11–18.
Khan H R, McDonald G K and Rengel Z 1998b Assessment of the Zn status of chickpea by plant analysis. Plant Soil 198, 1–9.
Khan H R, McDonald G K and Rengel Z 2000 Response of chickpea genoypes to Zn fertilization under field conditions in South Australia and Pakistan. J. Plant Nutr. 23, 1517–1531.
Khan H R, McDonald G K and Rengel Z 2003 Zn fertilization improves water use efficiency, grain yield and seed Zn content in chickpea. Plant Soil 249, 389–400.
Leport L, Turner N C, French R J, Tennant D, Thomson D B and Siddique K H M 1998 Water relations, gas exchange and growth of cool-season grain legumes in a Mediterranean-type environment. Eur. J. Agron. 9, 295–303.
Leport L, Turner N C, French R J, Barr M D, Duda R, Davies S L, Tennant D, Thomson D B and Siddique K H M 1999 Physiological responses of chickpea to terminal drought in a Mediterranean-type environment. Eur. J. Agron. 11, 279–291.
Morgan J M, Rodriguez-Maribona B and Knights E J 1991 Adaptation to water deficit in chickpea breeding lines by osmoregulation: relationship to grain yields in the field. Field Crops Res. 27, 61–70.
Nable R O and Webb M J 1993 Further evidence that zinc is required throughout the root zone for optimal plant growth and development. Plant Soil 150, 247–253.
Qian Y and Fry J D 1997 Water relations and drought tolerance of four turfgrasses. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 122, 129–133.
Rengel Z 1995 Carbonic anhydrase activity in leaves of wheat genotypes differing in Zn efficiency. J. Plant Physiol. 147, 251–256.
Saxena M C 1993 The challenge of developing biotic and abiotic stress resistance in cool-season food legumes. In Breeding for Tolerance in Cool-season Food Legumes. Eds. K B Singh and M C Saxena. pp. 3–14. John Wiley, New York, USA.
Saxena MC, Silim S N and Singh K B 1990 Effect of supplementary irrigation during reproductive growth on winter and spring chickpea (Cicer arietinum) in Mediterranean environment. J. Agric. Sci. Cambr. 114, 285–293.
Saxena N P 1987 Screening for adaptation to drought: Case studies with chickpea and pigeonpea. In Adaptation of Chickpea and Pigeonpea to Abiotic Stresses. Eds. N P Saxena and C Johansen. pp. 63–76. ICRISAT, Hyperabad, India.
Saxena N P, Krishnamurthy L and Johansen C 1993 Registration of a drought resistant chickpea germplasm. Crop Sci. 33, 1424.
Scholander P F, Hammel H T, Bradstreet E D and Hemmingsen E A 1965 Sap pressure in vascular plants. Science 1, 107–117.
Sharma C P, Mehrotra S C, Sharma P N and Bisht S S 1984 Water stress induced by zinc deficiency in cabbage. Current Sci. 53, 44–45.
Sharma P N, Kumar N and Bisht S S 1994 Effect of zinc deficiency on chlorophyll contents, photosynthesis and water relations of cauliflower plants. Photosynthetica 30, 353–359.
Sharma P N, Tripathi A and Bisht S S 1995 Zinc requirement for stomatal opening in cauliflower. Plant Physiol. 107, 751–756.
Singh R P and Das S K 1987 Management of chickpea and pigeonpea under stress conditions, with particular reference to drought. In Adaptation of Chickpea and Pigeonpea to Abiotic Stresses. Eds. N P Saxena and C Johansen. pp. 51–62. ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India.
Takkar P N and Walker C D 1993 The distribution and correction of zinc deficiency. In Zinc in Soils and Plants. Ed. A D Robson. pp. 151–165. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht.
Turner N C 1997 Further progress in crop water relations. Adv. Agron. 58, 293–338.
Turner N C, Wright G C and Siddique K H M 2001 Adaptation of grain legumes (pulses) to water-limited environments. Adv. Agronomy 71, 193–231.
Yu Q, Osborne L and Rengel Z 1998 Micronutrient deficiency changes activities of superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase in tobacco plants. J. Plant Nutr. 21, 1427–1437.
Yu Q and Rengel Z 1999 Micronutrient deficiency influences plant growth and activities of superoxide dismutases in narrow-leafed lupins. Ann. Bot. 83, 175–182.
Yu Q, Worth C and Rengel Z 1999 Using capillary electrophoresis to measure Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase concentration in leaves of wheat genotypes differing in tolerance to zinc deficiency. Plant Sci. 143, 231–239.
Zarcinas B A, Cartwright B and Spouncer L R 1987 Nitric acid digestion and multi-element analysis of plant material by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. 18, 131–146.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khan, H.R., McDonald, G.K. & Rengel, Z. Zinc fertilization and water stress affects plant water relations, stomatal conductance and osmotic adjustment in chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.). Plant Soil 267, 271–284 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-005-0120-7
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-005-0120-7