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Subject: Forestry × Author: Manpreet Kaur × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    Assessment of Salix clones for morphological and physiological traits under salt stress
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Manpreet Kaur; Thakur, Sapna
    The present investigation entitled “Assessment of Salix clones for morphological and physiological traits under salt stress” was carried out in the teaching area, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab during the year, 2021. Stem cuttings of selected five Salix clones were established in a pot experiment in Feb, 2021 arranged in Factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) using four replications and were irrigated with 0, 20, 40, 60, 80mM NaCl treatments for the active growth period. The observations on growth and physiological characteristics of clones as well as chemical parameters of soil were recorded at an interval of two months after initiation of salinity treatments i.e., May, July and October. However, the biomass parameters were recorded at the end of experiment. All the growth and biomass traits showed significantly reduction with increase in salinity treatments. Among physiological traits, significant reduction were observed in total chlorophyll, carotenoids, total starch and relative water content, while salinity stress raised the content of proline, total soluble sugar, total soluble protein, total phenol, electrolyte leakage and Na+/K+ ratio in all the clones. The enzymatic activities of POD and SOD increased in all the clones when subjected to higher levels of salinity stress. On the basis of overall mean performance, clone UHF 03 showed better growth and biomass accumulation at 80 mM and was found to be the most tolerant to salinity stress among tested clones. SEM and EDS mapping confirmed anatomical changes and higher Na accumulations in the roots and leaves of Salix in response to salinity stress. Highest heritability and genetic gain were recorded for relative water content, POD, fresh root weight, dry root weight and proline content. Strong correlation was observed for total dry weight with various physiological traits i.e., total starch, relative water content, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, total phenol, electrolyte leakage, Na+/K+ ratio, SOD and POD and thus, these traits must be given due importance while making selection for salt tolerance in Salix species.