Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Mashhad

2 Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

 
Introduction: Drought is known as one of the most important factors limiting the growth and production of plants in urban landscape. Drought has limited production of 25% of the world's agricultural lands. Water allocated to the landscape irrigation has high value and should be used optimally with high efficiency. Soil texture is a classification instrument used both in the field and laboratory to determine soil classes based on their physical texture. Soil texture can be determined using qualitative methods such as texture by feel, and quantitative methods such as the hydrometer method. Soil texture has agricultural applications such as determining crop suitability and predicting the response of the soil to environmental and management conditions such as drought or calcium (lime) requirements. Soil texture focuses on the particles that are less than two millimeters in diameter which include sand, silt, and clay. Soil texture affects the water content and drainage ability of soils. This is because texture controls the nature of soil pores, i.e. the voids or spaces between the mineral particles in a clay soil. For example, there are many minute pores or micro pores between the tiny clay particles. Being small, they tend to retain water but to exclude air. As a result, clay soils are prone to drain poorly and to become waterlogged. By contrast, sandy soils are dry soils. On the other hand, application of new techniques to maintain soil moisture is essential. One of these techniques for increasing soil water retention is use of natural moisture absorbing materials such as zeolite. Zeolites are one of the new and effective substances to improve the soil water retention and preserve water and minerals in the soil. Zeolites contain elements such as potassium, calcium, sodium, silicon, aluminum, magnesium, iron and phosphorus that can be considered as the best dietary supplement and fertilizer and play an important role in the utilization and production of the most agricultural products.
Ligustrum vulgar L., belongs to the Oleaceae family, is native to warm regions, European and Asian countries including Iran. This plant is one of the most widely used perennial plants in the landscape spaces. This study was designed to investigate the effects of drought stress and soil texture on growth and some qualitative and quantitative traits of the Ligustrum vulgare.
Materials and Method: In order to investigate the effect of zeolite and soil texture on quantitative and qualitative traits of Ligustrum vulgare under drought stress, a factorial experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design with three replications, in the greenhouse of Agricultural Faculty, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 2019. The treatments consisted of four types of soil texture (100% soil, 100% sand, 80% soil + 20% zeolite, 80% sand + 20% zeolite) and three levels of irrigation (25, 50 and 100% field capacity).
Plant height, number of leaves, number of lateral branches, maximum root length, root volume, shoot and root dry weight and length of lateral branches were measured in each pot. Physiochemical traits such as relative water content, electrolyte leakage and photosynthetic pigments were also measured. Statistical analysis of data was analyzed by JMP8 software. Graphs were plotted using excel and all mean comparisons were performed by LSD test at p < 0.05%.
Results and Discussion: According to the results, decreasing irrigation levels reduced vegetative traits such as fresh weight and dry weight. Relative water content also decreased, but ion leakage increased by decreasing irrigation levels. The highest stem fresh weight (18 g), root fresh weight (29 g), total fresh weight (56 g) and total dry weight (20 g) were observed in soil + zeolite, and the highest leaves fresh weight, root volume and plant height were obtained in soil and soil + zeolite treatments. The lowest root volume was observed in sand and zeolite treatments which had no significant differences.  In addition, ion leakage was lower in the treatments containing zeolite than the other treatments. The highest amount of SPAD (72) and chlorophyll b (31.5 mg / g fresh weight) were observed in sand + zeolite treatment and 25% field capacity. According to the results, it seems that soil and soil + zeolite in low irrigation conditions were more suitable environment for growth of Ligustrum vulgare and sandy bedding would reduce plant growth in normal conditions as well as under drought stress.

Keywords

1- Abdalla M.M., and El-Khoshiban N.H. 2007 The influence of water stress on growth, relative water content, photosynthetic pigments, some metabolic and hormonal contents of two Triticum aestivum cultivars. Journal of Apply Science Research 3: 2062-2074.
2- Abdulazeez A. 2017. Effects of soil texture on vegetative and root growth of Senna obtusifolia seedlings indigenous to Bichi, Sudan savannah of Northern Nigeria, in Green house conditions. IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science 10(4): 70-74.
3- Abedi Kupai J., and Sphrab F. 2004. Influence of zeolite and bentonite minerals on soil hydraulic properties. Proceedings of the 12th Iranian Conference of Crystallography and Mannology, University of Chamran, Ahvaz, pp. 567-562.
4- Abedi-Koupai J., Sohrab F., and Swarbrick G.W. 2008. Evaluation of hydrogel application on soil water retention characteristics. Journal of Plant Nutrition 31: 317-331.
5- Ahmadi Azar F., Hasanloo T., and Feizi V. 2015. Water stress and mineral zeolite application on growth and some physiological characteristics of Mallow (Malva sylvestris). Journal of Plant Researches 28(3): 459-474.
6- Banwarie L., Kaushik S.K., and Gautam R.C. 1994. Effect of soil moisture regime, kaolin spray and phosphorus fertilizer on nodulation, P uptake and water use of lentil (Lense culinaris). Indian Journal of Agronomy 39:241-245.
7- Beikircher B., and Mayr S. 2009. Intraspecific differences in drought tolerance and acclimation in hydraulics of Ligustrum vulgare and Viburnum lantana. Tree Physiology, Page 1 of 11.
8- Burger D.W., Hartin J.S., Hodel D.R., Lukaszewski T.A., Tjosvold S.A., and Wagner S.A. 1987. Water use in California’s ornamental nurseries. California Agriculture 41: 7-8.
9- Dere S., Günes T., and Sivaci R. 1998. Spectrophotometric determination of chlorophyll - A, B and total carotenoid contents of some Algae species using different solvents. Turkish Journal of Botany 22: 13-17.
10- Farooq M., Wahid A., Kobayashi N., Fujita D., and Basra S.M.A. 2009. Plant drought stress: effects, mechanisms and management. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 29: 185–212
11- Fathi A., and Tari D.B. 2016. Effect of drought stress and its mechanism in plants. International Journal of Life Sciences 10(1): 1-6
12- Franz Ch. 1983. Nutrient and water management for medicinal and aromatic plants. Acta Horticulture 132: 203-215.
13- Fu J., Fry J., and Huang B. 2004. Minimum water requirements of four turfgrasses in the transition zone. Horticultural Science 39: 1740-1744.
14- Ganjali A., Kafi M., Bagheri A., and Shahriari F. 2005. Investigation of Physiomorphological Aspects of Drought Resistance in Chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.) Genotypes, PhD Thesis. Mashhad Ferdowsi University.
15- Ghahraman A. 1986. Iran Color Flora. Forests and Rangelands Research Institute Publications.
16- Ghasemi Ghehsareh M., Khosh-Khui M., and Abedi-Koupai J. 2010. Effects of superabsorbent polymer on water requirement and growth indices of Ficus benjamina L. ‘Starlight’. Journal of Plant Nutrition 33: 785-795.
17- Ghasemi Z. 2014. Effect of irrigation with refined and unrefined municipal wastewater on growth indices and heavy metal accumulation in rosemary and tron species. M.Sc. thesis, Department of Environment, Yazd University.
18- Guan B.H., Ge Y., Fan M.Y., Niu X.Y., Lu Y.J., and Shang J. 2003. Phenotypic plasticity of growth and morphology in Mosla chinensis responds to diverse relative soil water content. Acta Ecologica Sinica 23(2): 259-263.
19- Guo, W., Li, B., Zhang, X., Wang, R. 2007. Architectural plasticity and growth responses of Hippophae rhamnoides and Caragana intermedia seedlings to simulated water stress. Journal of Arid Environments, 69: 385–399.
20- Hamarashid N.H., Othman M.A., and Hussain M.A.H. 2010. Effects of soil texture on chemical compositions, microbial populations and carbon mineralization in soil. Egyptian Journal of Experimental Biology (Botany) 6(1): 59–64.
21- Harb E.M.Z., and Mahmoud M.A. 2009. Enhancing of growth, essential oil yield and components of yarrow plant (Achillea millefolium) grown under safe agriculture conditions using zeolite and compost. 4rd Conference on Recent Technologies in Agriculture, Pp 586-592.
22- Inze D., and Montagu M.V. 2000. Oxidative stress in plants. Cornavall Great Britain.
23- Kafi M., Zand A., Kamkar B., Sharifi H., and Goldani M. 2001. Plant Physiology (translation) Mashhad University Press. 379 p.
24- Keikhaii F. 2001. Effect of superabsorbent PR 3005 A on water content and some quantitative and qualitative characteristics of oily flax. M.Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.
25- Mohammadkhani N. and Heidari R. 2007. Effects of water stress on respiration, photosynthetic pigments and water content in tow Maize cultivar. Pakistan Journal Biological Science 10: 4022-4028.
26- Mortezaii Nejad F., and Jazi Zade A. 2017. Effects of drought stress on physiological and morphological indices of chicory for introduction in urban green space. Plant Process and Function 6(21): 279-290.
27- Naeemi M., Akbari G.A., Shirani Rad A.H., Hassanlou T., and Akbari G.A. 2012. The Effect of Zeolite and Selenium Foliar Application under Water Deficit Stress on Water Relationships and Antioxidant enzymes in paper pumpkin. Journal of Agricultural Agronomy 14(1): 67-81.
28- Omae H., Kumar A., Kashiviba K., and Shono M. 2007. Assessing drought tolerance of Snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) from genotypic differences in leaf water relations, shoot growth and photosynthetic parameters. Plant Production Science 10(1): 28-35.
29- Oneill P.M., Shanahan J.F., and Schepers J.S. 2006. Use chlorophyll florescence assessments to differentiate corn hybrid respond to variable water conditions. Crop Science 46: 681-687.
30- Polat E., Karaca M., Demir H., and Naci Onus A. 2004. Use of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) in agriculture. Journal of fruit and ornamental plant research. Special ed. 12: 183-189.
31- Rastegar S., Zakeri A., and Zakeri B. 2016. Effect of drought stress on vegetative growth and biochemical changes of six tropical ornamental species. Plant Process and Function 5(16): 157-164.
32- Salar N., Farah pour M., and Bahadori F. 2005. The Effect of Terra-Cotta hydrophilic polymer on irrigation period in melon. Third Specialized Training-Agricultural and Industrial Application of Super absorbable Hydrogels.
33- Setayesh R., Kafi M., and Nabati J. 2016. Determination of drought tolerance threshold of ornamental Barberry shrub in Mashhad climatic conditions. Journal of Horticultural Science 30(4): 714-722.
34- Starr F., Starr K., and Loope L. 2003. Ligustrum spp. OVERVIEW. United States Geological Survey--Biological Resources Division. Haleakala Field Station, Maui, Hawai.
35- Tabatabaei S.A.H, Jalilvand H., Ahani H. 2014. Drought stress response in Caucasian hackberry: growth and morphology, Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences 5(3): 158-169.
36- Taylor T.N., Remy W., and Hass H. 1995. Fossil arbuscular mycorrhizae from the early Devonian. Mycologia 87(4): 560-573.
37- Toscano S., Ferrante A., and Romano D. 2019. Response of mediterranean ornamental plants to drought stress. Horticulture Science 5(6):1-20.
38- Wakeel A., Hassan A., Aziz T., and Iqbal M. 2002. Effect of different levels and soil texture on growth and nutrient uptake of maize. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences 39(2).
39- Yadav M., and Rhee K.Y. 2012 Superabsorbent nanocomposite (alginate-g-PAMPS/MMT): synthesis, characterization and swelling behavior. Carbohydrate Polymers 90: 165-173.
40- Yang F., and Miao L.F. 2010. Adaptive responses to progressive drought stress in two poplar species originating from different altitudes. Silva Fennica, 44: 23–37.
CAPTCHA Image