Short Term Influence of Salinity on Uptake of Phosphorus by Ipomoea aquatica

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the short-term influence of different levels of salinity on the growth, yield and phosphorus (P) uptake of Ipomoea aquatica during the period of 03rd September to 03rd October, 2015. Two non-saline soils with different textural classes were collected from the Ganges Tidal Floodplain (Dumuria soil series) and Ganges Meander Floodplain sites (Barisal soil series). The experiment was laid to fit a completely randomized design (CRD) with four treatments (0 dS m-1, 3 dS m-1, 6 dS m-1, 12 dS m-1) each having three replications for this experiment. After plant harvesting, the laboratory investigation was carried out in the Soil, Water and Environment Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh. For both soil series, yield contributing characters like plant height, shoot length, root length, number of leaves, fresh weight and dry weight were significantly (P < 0.05) influenced by different levels of salinity treatments. In Dumuria soil series, all yield character was decreased in order to 0 dS m-1>3 dS m-1>6 dS m-1>12 dS m-1 salinity level for Ipomoea aquatica which was the same sequence for Barisal soil series. In addition, Phosphorus (P) uptake, the sequence was 0 dS m-1>3 dS m-1>6 dS m-1>12 dS m-1, respectively for both (Dumuria and Barisal) soil series. The sequence clearly indicates that salinity level reduces the uptake of P and ultimately reduces the yield. The changes were statistically significant (P < 0.05) in case of both soil series