Exploring saline land improvement through testing leptochloa fusca and sporobolus virginicus in egypt

Abstract

Land degradation is a major global issue because of its adverse impact on agricultural productivity and sustainability. Population pressure along with the demand for more food, fodder, and fuelwood has generated a chain of interrelated economic, social, and environmental issues associated with the land degradation especially in developing countries in arid and semiarid regions. In this concern, two pot experiments were conducted in the greenhouse of the National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, to study the mutual in fl uence of soil salinity (five initial soil salinity levels, i.e., 2.84, 5.36, 10.22, 17.45, 20.56, and 24.69 dS m -1) referred as S 0, S1, S 2, S 3, S 4, and S 5, respectively, on the growth, physiological aspects, and some cation content as well as biomass production of Leptochloa fusca and Sporobolus virginicus grasses. Moderate levels of initial soil salinity signi ficantly increased most of the growth characters in both seasons. The S 2 and S 3 treatments for Sporobolus virginicus and S 3 and S 4 treatments for Leptochloa fusca gave the highest values for all growth characters and biomass production in the first and second seasons, respectively. The improvement of growth characters and biomass production of both species in the second season is due to improving the initial soil salinity. Meanwhile leaf/stem ratio increased with increasing the initial soil salinity in both seasons. Increasing initial soil salinity signi ficantly increased Na +, soluble carbohydrates, and proline concentration in the plant tissues. On the other hand K +, K + /Na + ratio, and Ca 2+ content insigni ficantly decreased with the same treatment compared to control. No clear effects were recorded for Mg 2+. As for the effect of successive growing of Leptochloa fusca and Sporobolus virginicus on the soil quality is concerned, all cations, anions (except for 3 HCO-), sodium adsorption ratio, and electrical conductivity decreased by the end of the first season and reached its lowest values by the end of the second season; this is due to the leaching and to the accumulation of salts as halophyte plants are capable of accumulating salts into their leaves’ vacuoles and excrete it through their salt glands. Leptochloa fusca had more pronouncing effects on improving soil quality more than Sporobolus virginicus.