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Ionic relationships in some halophytic Iranian Chenopodiaceae and their rhizospheres

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Abstract

Previous studies on the identification of ion relations in halophytes have revealed that many members of Chenopodiaceae accumulate high amounts of sodium and chloride even in soils with low salinity, indicating a typical pattern which is genetically fixed. In this study, we followed up with the question of ion relations in different halophyte species with different photosynthetic pathways and different salt tolerance strategies over a complete growing season. Soil and plant samples from five species Climacoptera turcomanica (Litv.) Botsch. (leaf succulent-C4), Salicornia persica Akhani subsp. rudshurensis Akhani (stem succulent-C3), Halimocnemis pilifera Moq. (leaf succulent-C4), Petrosimonia glauca (Pall.) Bunge (leaf succulent-C4) and Atriplex verrucifera M. Bieb. (recreto-halophyte-C3) were collected over a complete growing season from a salt flat 60 km W of Tehran. The contents of main cations (Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+) and chloride were determined in plant and soil samples. Na+ and Cl− concentration in the shoots of two hygro-halophytes Climacoptera turcomanica and Salicornia persica subsp. rudshurensis were constant over the period of the growing season. In contrast, sodium and chloride in the shoots of Halimocnemis pilifera and Petrosimonia glauca showed respectively an increasing and, in the shoots of Atriplex verrucifera, a decreasing, trend. We did not notice any decreasing trend of K+ together with increasing trend of Na+ in the shoots of the studied species; however K+ in the shoots of all examined species was considerably lower than Na+ and Cl−. It was observed that Climacoptera and Salicornia could absorb and retain calcium even in high salinity conditions, while Halimocnemis and Petrosimonia could not. Na+, K+, Cl−, Ca2+, and Mg2+ contents in the shoots of different types of halophytes (stem-succulent, leaf-succulent and excreting halophyte) or different type of photosynthesis (C3, C4) are independent of those in their rhizosphere. We concluded that it is controlled by the genetic characteristic of the specific taxon rather than by the environment.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is the result of a research project supported by Iranian National Science Foundation (INSF) under Project No. 842951 and “Geobotanical Studies in Different Parts of Iran VI” supported by the Research Council University of Tehran under project number 6104037/1. The soil and water analysis were carried out in part in the Plant Physiology Laboratory of the School of Biology, Laboratory of Geology of the School of Geology and the Soil and Water Research Institute, Ministry of Jihade Agriculture. We thank the directors and staffs of these laboratories in particular Dr. V. Niknam and Dr. K. Bazargani for their generous help and the useful comments by two anonymous referees.

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  1. Department of Plant Sciences, School of Biology, Center of Excellence of Phylogeny of Living Organisms, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 14155–6455, Tehran, Iran

    Zeinab Matinzadeh, Massoud Mirmassoumi & Hossein Akhani

  2. Department Ecology, University of Bielefeld, Wasserfuhr 24-26, 33619, Bielefeld, Germany

    Siegmar-W. Breckle

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  1. Zeinab Matinzadeh
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Matinzadeh, Z., Breckle, SW., Mirmassoumi, M. et al. Ionic relationships in some halophytic Iranian Chenopodiaceae and their rhizospheres. Plant Soil 372, 523–539 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-013-1744-7

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