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Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University popularly known as HAU, is one of Asia's biggest agricultural universities, located at Hisar in the Indian state of Haryana. It is named after India's seventh Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh. It is a leader in agricultural research in India and contributed significantly to Green Revolution and White Revolution in India in the 1960s and 70s. It has a very large campus and has several research centres throughout the state. It won the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Award for the Best Institute in 1997. HAU was initially a campus of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. After the formation of Haryana in 1966, it became an autonomous institution on February 2, 1970 through a Presidential Ordinance, later ratified as Haryana and Punjab Agricultural Universities Act, 1970, passed by the Lok Sabha on March 29, 1970. A. L. Fletcher, the first Vice-Chancellor of the university, was instrumental in its initial growth.

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Subject: Botany × Author: Choudhary, Poonam × End date: 2008 × Start date: 2003 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    To study the phytoremedial potential of some chenopods
    (CCSHAU, 2005) Choudhary, Poonam; Babber, S
    The effects of different levels of salinity on growth, development, water content and ion accumulation in the six chenopods (Suaeda fruticosa, Salicornia brachiata, Atriplex nummularia, Atriplex lentiformis) and glycophytes (Chenopodium murale, Spinacea oleracea) were determined. These chenopods were grown in pots at 0, 8, 12, 16 and 20 dSm-1 levels of salinity and plants were harvested at their maximum vegetative growth (Salicornia brachiata and Spinacea oleracea) or at flower initiation stage (Suaeda fruticosa, Atriplex nummularia, Atriplex lentiformis and Chenopodium murale). Increase in salinity stimulated plant height, number of branches and leaves per plant, fresh/dry weight of stem and leaves in halophytic species. But these parameters were adversely affected in Spinacea oleracea and Chenopodium murale. Water contributed to a large proportion towards increase in fresh biomass of halophytes. The accumulation of ions was greater in leaves than in stem. The contents of Na+ and Cl- in both stem and leaves of all chenopods increased with every increment in salinity. Elevated salinity induced decrease in Ca2+, K+, Mg2+ and SO4 2- in all chenopods. Suaeda fruticosa accumulated a large quantity of ions in comparison to other chenopods as well. Higher salt tolerance in Suaeda fruticosa, Atriplex nummularia and Atriplex lentiformis could be ascribed to their ability for osmoregulation and effective compartmentation of ions. Another interesting observation was higher magnitude of total ionic contents in the harvestable biomass of different chenopods like Suaeda fruticosa, Salicornia brachiata, Atriplex nummularia and Atriplex lentiformis and concomitantly retention of less amount of ionic content in the soil after harvesting of the above chenopods. Conversely, the magnitude of total ionic content in the harvestable biomass of Chenopodium murale and Spinacea oleracea was less and consequently the total ionic contents in the soil of the above mentioned chenopods was observed more. Likewise ECe and pH of the soil on comparison before transplantation of the different chenopods in the soil and after harvesting of chenopods indicated that these were reduced at all salinity levels and the reduction was more in Suaeda fruticosa, Salicornia brachiata, Atriplex nummularia and Atriplex lentiformis and it was least of all in case of Chenopodium murale and Spinacea oleracea. The computed data on per cent remediation in terms of total estimated ionic accumulation in the harvestable biomass in the chenopodsin comparison to total estimated ionic accumulation in the soil at various added salinity levels, explicitly showed that, although, it decreased with increase in salinity levels. Nevertheless, Suaeda fruticosa, Atriplex nummularia and Atriplex lentiformis were able to remediate 3.99, 3.74, 3.46 and 2.90 per cent soil salinity at 20 dSm-1 , respectively. Likewise, the figures on per cent remediation at 8, 12, 16 dSm-1 were still higher than at 20 dSm-1. It was worth mentioning that Suaeda fruticosa followed by Atriplex nummularia, Atriplex lentiformis and Salicornia brachiata were able to remediate the soil salinity more than Chenopodium murale and Spinacea oleracea. Nevertheless, further extensive studies are needed with several other native flora and indigenous halophytic taxa to find out their relative long-term (3-4 years) efficacy to extract salts from the saline soil to develop a plant based sustainable remediation technology for greening of saline wastelands in India.