Abstract
Bromus inermis is a dominant rhizomatous grass in Otindag Sandland of North China, where soil salinization is increasing. We studied responses of caryopsis germination, early seedling growth and ramet integrative growth of this clonal plant to salinity. Caryopses germinated in NaCl solutions ≤0.2 M. Ungerminated caryopses treated with >0.02 M NaCl germinated after transfer to 0.02 M NaCl, and percentage germination recovery increased with treatment NaCl concentration. No seedlings survived NaCl concentrations >0.3 M. At 0.3 M NaCl, biomass and height of seedlings significantly decreased with increase in treatment NaCl concentration, but root/shoot ratio significantly increased. Ramets exposed to high salinity survived if interconnected to a neighbour ramet not exposed to salinity. However, if interconnections were severed ramets exposed to high salinity died. Thus, B. inermis is adapted to the saline environment in Otindag Sandland in both the asexual and sexual stages of its life cycle.
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Acknowledgments
Sincere thanks are extended to Dr. Gehan K.M.G.. Jayasuriya, from Biology Department, University of Kentucky, USA, for valuable advice on data analysis. Prof. Huang Zhenying thanks The Chinese Academy of Sciences for awarding him a fellowship for a 3-month visit to the Biology Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA.
Funds for this study were provided by the Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (2007CB106802), Key Project of CAS (KZCX2-XB2-01), National Natural Science Foundation of P. R. China (30570281, 30872074, 30570296), and National Science Foundation for Post-doctoral Scientists of China (20080430589).
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Yang, H., Huang, Z., Baskin, C.C. et al. Responses of caryopsis germination, early seedling growth and ramet clonal growth of Bromus inermis to soil salinity. Plant Soil 316, 265–275 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9778-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9778-y