The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters

In drought years, almond growers have to restrict fresh water application, either stressing the trees with inadequate water or adding saline water and reducing water stress but causing salt stress. Tree response to combined water and salt stress are critical consideration on management decisions but...

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Main Authors: Cenk Küçükyumuk, Donald Suarez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ankara University 2023-01-01
Series:Journal of Agricultural Sciences
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Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1930102
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author Cenk Küçükyumuk
Donald Suarez
author_facet Cenk Küçükyumuk
Donald Suarez
author_sort Cenk Küçükyumuk
collection DOAJ
description In drought years, almond growers have to restrict fresh water application, either stressing the trees with inadequate water or adding saline water and reducing water stress but causing salt stress. Tree response to combined water and salt stress are critical consideration on management decisions but there is no appropriate information currently. That’s why, it was investigated the water and salt stress and combined water-salt stress on two almond varieties in a two year (2015 and 2016) outdoor experiment with young trees. Trees were 1 year old at the beginning of the experiment. The experiment was conducted USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, California, USA. Drought treatments consisted of 100%, 80% and 60% of tree evapotranspiration (ET) and salt treatments of Electrical Conductivity (EC= 0.55, 1.20, 2.40 and 3.0 dS m-1), for a total of 120 trees in twelve treatments with two varieties and five replicates. We examined water use, trunk diameter and physiological parameters (leaf net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and leaf water potential). Photosynthetic rate values (Pn) ranged between 3.53 and 11.08 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1 for Nonpareil and 4.58 and 9.48 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1 for Aldridge. Stomatal conductance values ranged between 0.076 and 0.283 mol H2O m-2 s-1 for Nonpareil and 0.097 and 0.302 for Aldridge. All parameters showed significant decline starting at 80% water application and EC 1.2 dS m-1. In terms of growth rather than survival, almond was sensitive to water as well as salt stress. We evaluated combined stress using three stress response models: additive stress, dominant stress model and a multiplicative stress model where the predicted growth loss is obtained by multiplying the relative growth response for the individual stresses. Equation (2) for reduction in trunk growth were developed for treatments with either salinity only or water only stress. Both varieties grafted to Nemaguard rootstock were very sensitive to salinity with growth loss starting at EC 1.2 dS m-1. The results indicate that the Nonpareil is more sensitive to drought and salt stress than Aldridge. Aldridge almond variety can be recommended for areas where water supplies are scarce and salinized.
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spelling doaj-art-2f35afff851440b28d8b89068563f44a2025-08-20T02:01:53ZengAnkara UniversityJournal of Agricultural Sciences1300-75802148-92972023-01-0129117118710.15832/ankutbd.98403845The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological ParametersCenk Küçükyumuk0Donald Suarez1İzmir Demokrasi ÜniversitesiUSDA-ARS U.S. Salinity LaboratoryIn drought years, almond growers have to restrict fresh water application, either stressing the trees with inadequate water or adding saline water and reducing water stress but causing salt stress. Tree response to combined water and salt stress are critical consideration on management decisions but there is no appropriate information currently. That’s why, it was investigated the water and salt stress and combined water-salt stress on two almond varieties in a two year (2015 and 2016) outdoor experiment with young trees. Trees were 1 year old at the beginning of the experiment. The experiment was conducted USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, California, USA. Drought treatments consisted of 100%, 80% and 60% of tree evapotranspiration (ET) and salt treatments of Electrical Conductivity (EC= 0.55, 1.20, 2.40 and 3.0 dS m-1), for a total of 120 trees in twelve treatments with two varieties and five replicates. We examined water use, trunk diameter and physiological parameters (leaf net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and leaf water potential). Photosynthetic rate values (Pn) ranged between 3.53 and 11.08 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1 for Nonpareil and 4.58 and 9.48 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1 for Aldridge. Stomatal conductance values ranged between 0.076 and 0.283 mol H2O m-2 s-1 for Nonpareil and 0.097 and 0.302 for Aldridge. All parameters showed significant decline starting at 80% water application and EC 1.2 dS m-1. In terms of growth rather than survival, almond was sensitive to water as well as salt stress. We evaluated combined stress using three stress response models: additive stress, dominant stress model and a multiplicative stress model where the predicted growth loss is obtained by multiplying the relative growth response for the individual stresses. Equation (2) for reduction in trunk growth were developed for treatments with either salinity only or water only stress. Both varieties grafted to Nemaguard rootstock were very sensitive to salinity with growth loss starting at EC 1.2 dS m-1. The results indicate that the Nonpareil is more sensitive to drought and salt stress than Aldridge. Aldridge almond variety can be recommended for areas where water supplies are scarce and salinized.https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1930102almondcombined stressphotosynthesisstomatal conductancetrunk growth
spellingShingle Cenk Küçükyumuk
Donald Suarez
The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters
Journal of Agricultural Sciences
almond
combined stress
photosynthesis
stomatal conductance
trunk growth
title The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters
title_full The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters
title_fullStr The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters
title_full_unstemmed The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters
title_short The Combined Effects of Salinity and Drought on Young Almond Trees and Physiological Parameters
title_sort combined effects of salinity and drought on young almond trees and physiological parameters
topic almond
combined stress
photosynthesis
stomatal conductance
trunk growth
url https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1930102
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