Vol. 9(15), pp. 1144-1150, 10 April, 2014

DOI: 10.5897/AJAR2013.8021

Article Number: 97F3F3A43832

ISSN 1991-637X

Copyright ©2014

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR

African Journal of Agricultural

Research

Full Length Research Paper

Effect of salinity on growth and leaf area of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cv. suntech - 85

Sunil Kumar*, Aquil Ahmad, Vandana Rao and Anwar Masood

Affiliated to M.J.P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, U. P. G. F. (P. G.) College, Department of Botany, Shahjahanpur, U. P. 242001, India.

Received 3 October, 2013; Accepted 21 March, 2014

A pot experiment was conducted during 2009 to 2010 to access adverse effect of salinity on growth of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cv. Suntech - 85. The result revealed that with increasing salinity concentration, the growth parameters declined except at lower salinity level 5 E.C. which does not show any adverse effect rather, there was slight increase in all growth parameters as compared to control. Whereas, higher salinity level with 25 E.C. was deleterious and showed a decrease of 20.96, 39.92 and 22.44% in shoot length, 35.93, 33.33 and 31.50% in root length, 56.46, 29.95 and 28.81% in shoot fresh weight, 42.42, 51.28 and 34.73% in root fresh weight, 30.26, 45.54 and 27.08% in shoot dry weight, 63.41, 55.00 and 57.29% in root dry weight and 44.82, 42.30 and 38.14% in leaf number and 41.56, 33.04 and 40.00% in leaf area as compared to control at 30, 60 and 90 DAS respectively. This decrease in growth at higher salinity levels might be due to the toxic effects of salinity, which badly affected plant physiological aspects such as osmotic adjustment and ion accumulation creating drought-like conditions for the plant. Key words: Growth, salinity, leaf area, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.).

INTRODUCTION Saline and sodic soils occur naturally in arid and semi-arid climate conditions and is a major problem in crop production (Szaboles, 1994). It is estimated that one third of the irrigated land in the world is affected by high salinity (Mass and Hoffmann, 1976). About ten million-hectare lands are affected by high salinity and sodicity in India alone. Moreover, Uttar Pradesh had about 1.28 million hectare area under saline-alkali soils of which 4,000 to 20,000 ha land occurs in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh (Srivastava et al., 2002).

Salinity limits the crop production and yield. Plants growing in saline atmosphere suffer some degree of water and salt stress, which affects every aspect of plant

growth and development, as all the phases of plant growth from germination to maturity are affected by the environment in which the plant grows (Boyer 1982; Kumar et al., 2007).

When it comes to the production of oil seed crops, salinity plays a limiting factor in their production; oil crops occupy a prime importance in Indian economy (Sharma, 2003). The maximum oil production in India during 2003 to 2004 was 25.1 million tons, which was 14 million ton less than self dependency in oil production. In India per day availability of vegetable oil per person is 12 g which should be 18 g per person according to F. A. O report (Hedge, 2004).

*Corresponding author E-mail: kumarsunil22@yahoo.com

Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons

Attribution License 4.0 International License

Kumar et al. 1145

Table 1. Effect of salinity on shoots and roots length in Helianthus annuus L. cv. Suntech-85 at 30, 60 and 90 days after sowing (DAS) stages.

Salinity concentrations (E.C.)

Length (cms)

30 DAS 60 DAS 90 DAS

Shoot Root Shoot Root Shoot Root

0 20.66 10.66 79.33 15.00 104.00 18.00

5 21.00 11.00 81.00 15.33 104.33 18.33

10 19.33 10.33 70.66 14.00 99.33 17.33

15 18.00 9.66 67.66 13.00 95.33 16.33

20 16.66 7.66 60.00 12.00 91.00 14.33

25 16.33 6.83 47.66 10.00 80.66 12.33

C.D at 5% = 1.50 1.51 5.37 1.22 5.72 1.47

N. B. = Each value is a mean of three replicates, E. C. = Electric conductivity, D. A. S. = Days After Sowing.

Table 2. Effect of salinity on fresh weights of shoots and roots in Helianthus annuus L. cv. Suntech-85 at 30, 60 and 90 days after sowing (DAS) stages.

Salinity concentrations (E.C.)

Fresh weight (g)

30 DAS 60 DAS 90 DAS

Shoot Root Shoot Root Shoot Root

0 6.50 0.66 17.13 1.56 98.33 7.66

5 7.16 0.70 18.13 1.66 110.00 8.16

10 5.86 0.56 15.50 1.43 94.00 7.50

15 4.23 0.52 14.83 1.33 86.66 6.50

20 3.43 0.46 13.33 0.93 78.33 5.43

25 2.83 0.38 12.00 0.76 70.00 5.00

C.D at 5% = 1.18 0.10 2.02 0.27 8.60 0.86

N. B. = Each value is a mean of three replicates, E. C. = Electric conductivity, D. A. S. = Days After Sowing.

In the present study an attempt has been made to observe the effect of different salinity concentrations on growth parameters of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cv Suntech - 85. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted at Department of Botany, G. F. (P. G.) College Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, on sunflower (H.

annuus L.) cv. Suntech - 85. The experiment was set in 9 inches earthen pots in factorial randomized manner containing a mixture of garden soil, humus and sand in a ratio of 2:1:1 in a net house. Artificially prepared different grades of salinity concentrations viz, 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 electrical conductivity (E. C.) were prepared by mixing salts of sodium chloride, calcium chloride and sodium sulphate in a ratio of 7:2:1 and were applied to pots periodically. Analysis was done by uprooting the plants carefully and washed thoroughly under running tap water, the shoot and root lengths were taken with the help of meter scale. The fresh weight of shoot and root was taken on single pan balance, and for the dry weight of shoot and root the plants were kept in an hot air oven at 60°C and after seven days the dry weight was taken on single pan balance.

The leaf number was calculated by counting number of leaves per plant and the total leaf area of plant was determined with the help of Kemp’s constant method.

RESULTS The results presented in Tables 1 and 2 showed that with the increasing concentrations of salinity there was gradual decline in shoot and root length but there was slight increase of 1.65, 2.11 and 0.32% in shoot length, 3.19, 2.20 and 1.83% in root length as compared to control at 30, 60 and 90 DAS, respectively. Whereas, at maximum concentration of 25 E.C., there was 20.96, 39.92 and 22.44% decrease in shoot length and 35.93, 33.33 and 31.50% decrease in root length (Graphs I and II). In fresh weight of shoot and root at 5 E.C., there was 10.15, 5.84 and 11.87% increase in shoot fresh weight and 6.06, 6.41 and 6.53% increase in root fresh weight. At 25 E. C. concentration, the decrease was 56.46, 29.95 and 28.81% in shoot fresh weight and 42.42, 51.28 and 34.73% in root fresh weight (Graphs III and IV). Similarly, in shoot and root dry weight at 5 E. C. there was 6.58, 1.41 and 6.94% increase in shoot dry weight and 4.88, 3.75 and 10.42% increase in root dry weight but at 25 E. C. there was 30.26, 45.54 and 27.08% decrease in shoot dry weight and 63.41, 55.00 and 57.29% decrease in root dry weight (Graphs V and VI). Whereas, similar trends

1146 Afr. J. Agric. Res.

Table 3. Effect of salinity on dry weights of shoots and roots in Helianthus annuus L. cv. Suntech-85 at 30, 60 and 90 days after sowing (DAS) stages.

Salinity concentrations (E.C.)

Dry weight (g)

30 DAS 60 DAS 90 DAS

Shoot Root Shoot Root Shoot Root

0 0.76 0.41 2.13 0.80 5.76 0.96

5 0.81 0.43 2.16 0.83 6.16 1.06

10 0.73 0.35 1.86 0.68 5.68 0.73

15 0.68 0.28 1.66 0.55 4.96 0.63

20 0.57 0.18 1.43 0.40 4.70 0.48

25 0.53 0.15 1.16 0.36 4.20 0.41

C.D at 5% = 0.21 0.05 0.31 0.06 0.38 0.14

N. B. = Each value is a mean of three replicates, E. C. = Electric conductivity, D. A. S. = Days After Sowing.

Table 4. Effect of salinity on leaf number in Helianthus annuus L. cv. Suntech-85 at

30, 60 and 90 days after sowing (DAS) stages.

Salinity concentrations (E.C.) Leaf number

30 DAS 60 DAS 90 DAS

0 9.66 17.33 14.00

5 10.33 19.33 15.33

10 9.33 15.33 12.66

15 8.33 14.33 11.33

20 7.00 12.33 10.66

25 5.33 10.00 8.66

C.D at 5% = 1.19 2.69 1.83

N. B. = Each value is a mean of three replicates, E. C. = Electric conductivity, D. A. S. = Days

After Sowing.

Table 5. Effect of salinity on leaf area in Helianthus annuus L. cv. Suntech-85 at 30, 60

and 90 days after sowing (DAS) stages.

Salinity concentrations (E.C.) Leaf area

30 DAS 60 DAS 90 DAS

0 205.33 373.33 250.00 5 245.33 403.33 303.33 10 176.66 343.33 226.66 15 160.00 310.00 196.66 20 140.00 280.00 176.66 25 120.00 250.00 150.00 C.D at 5% = 29.14 49.37 43.00

N. B. = Each value is a mean of three replicates, E. C. = Electric conductivity, D. A. S. = Days After Sowing.

were also revealed in leaf number and leaf area at concentration of 5 E. C. there was 6.94, 11.54 and 9.50% increase in leaf number and 19.48, 8.04 and 21.33% increase in leaf area as compared to control at 30, 60 and 90 DAS, respectively. But at 25 E. C. concentration, it showed 44.82, 42.30 and 38.14% decrease in leaf number and 41.56, 33.04 and 40.00% decrease in leaf area as compared to control at 30, 60 and 90 DAS,

respectively (Graphs VII and VIII). DISCUSSION

It is an established fact that salinity inhibits plant growth. Generally plants growing in saline atmosphere face water deficit as similar to the drought stress. The water

Kumar et al. 1147

Perc

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Graph I. Effect of salinity on Shoot length of Sunflower cv Suntech -85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Perc

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Salinity Concentrations in (E. C. = Electrical Conductivity)

Effect of salinity on Root length of sunflower after 30,60 and 90 DAS

30 DAS 60 DAS 90 DAS

Perc

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Graph II. Effect of salinity on Root length of Sunflower cv Suntech -85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

Perc

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fresh

Graph III. Effect of salinity on shoot fresh weight of Sunflower cv Suntech –85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

1148 Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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fresh w

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Graph IV. Effect of salinity on root fresh weight of Sunflower cv Suntech -85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

Perc

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weig

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Graph V. Effect of salinity on Shoot dry weight of Sunflower cv Suntech -85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

potential of plants growing in saline soil became low due to increasing concentration of salts in root zone (Munns and Termaat, 1986). Excessive amount of salt in root zone affects growth of root, photosynthesis, enzyme activation and nutrient uptake and ultimately decreasing plant growth (Delane et al., 1982).

Results from the above study indicate that H. annuus cv. Suntech-85 is a moderate salt tolerant species during growth and can withstand the salinity level upto 5 E. C. conentration. Infact all the growth parameters show a little enhancement (Tables 1 to 5 and Graphs I to VIII) over the control in 5 E. C. treatment. Generally, the halophytes show a stimulation of growth at this

concentration which is otherwise inhibitory to the growth of glycophytes. However, Salinity level higher than 5 E. C. level decreased all the growth parameters in this study as reported by several workers in other oil crops e.g. groundnut (Mensah et al., 2006), cotton (Maiti et al., 2006), mustard (Sadiq et al., 2002; Kumar et al., 2005, 2007), soybean (Shereen et al., 2001) and safflower (Kaya and Ipex, 2003). Similar results have also been reported in Leaf area which is a good indicator of water and salinity stress, since leaf expansion generally requires a high turgor pressure for cell enlargement directly affecting photosynthetic rate and growth (Huang and Redmann, 1995).

Kumar et al. 1149

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Graph VI. Effect of salinity on Root dry weight. of Sunflower cv Suntech -85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

Perc

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num

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Graph VII. Effect of salinity on leaf number of Sunflower cv Suntech -85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are highly thankful to Dr. Aquil Ahmad, Principal, G. F. College, Shahjahanpur, for encouragement

and for providing necessary research facilities. Dr. Sunil Kumar, one of the author is also thankful to University Grant Commission, New Delhi for providing financial assistance under “Post Doctoral Fellowship” for carrying

1150 Afr. J. Agric. Res.

Perc

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are

a

Graph VIII. Effect of salinity on leaf area of Sunflower cv Suntech –85 after 30, 60 and 90 DAS.

out research work. Conflict of Interest

The authors have not declared any conflict of interest.

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