Field Studies of Crop Response to Water and Salt Stress

Abstract

Studies of crop response to water and salt stress vary either salinity with a high leaching fraction or irrigation in the absence of salinity to isolate and quantify the effects of the two types of stress. Under deficit irrigation with saline water, a water conserving practice, the crop experiences simultaneous matric and osmotic stress, and it is not known if experiments designed to isolate stress effects may be used to predict crop response to simultaneous stresses. Thus, a study was conducted wherein yields were determined under varying levels of salinity and irrigation. Corn ( Zea mays L.) and melon ( Cucumis melo L.) were grown at the Arava Research and Development Farm in Yotvata, Israel, and alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) at the Utah Power & Light Research Farm in Huntington, UT. Corn and melon plots were drip irrigated at six ratios of potential evapotranspiration ranging from 0.2 to1.7 in combination with four salinity levels. Alfalfa was irrigated with water of 0.2 and 4.0 dS m −1 from a line‐source sprinkler. For all three crops, the salinity treatments consisted of a control treatment with a salinity level less than published salt‐tolerance thresholds. Interactive effects of salinity and water stress were not observed in these field experiments. At low irrigation levels (≈70% of potential evaporation), yields were unaffected by the salinity level. At the higher irrigation levels, the salinity level caused significant differences in yield. Yield data were fit to piecewise linear models that emphasized the limiting nature of the effects of salt and water stress.

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