Macroscopic simulation of durum wheat response to salinity on vegetative growth stages

Hosseini, Sara; Jalali, Vahid Reza; Homaee, Mehdi

Macroscopic simulation of durum wheat response to salinity on vegetative growth stages

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ M. Sc. Student and Assist.Dept. of Soil Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman

² Assist. Prof., Dept. of Soil Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman

³ Prof., Dept. of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Fresh water deficit is one the most limiting factors in arid and semi-arid regions for agricultural productions. Consequently, it is needed that quantitative response of plants to salinity stress be analyzed in order to use marginal and brackish water to produce agricultural crops is such regions. The vegetative growth stage is the most critical period of plant growth, because the final production directly depends on this early phonologic stage. The objective of this research was to quantitatively assess durum wheat response to salinity at different vegetative growth stages by using macroscopic models. Consequently, an extensive experiment was conducted in a loamy sand soil, using different salinity treatments including one non-saline water (0.4 ds.m^-1) and five natural saline waters of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 dS.m^-1. The macroscopic models of Maas and Hoffman, van Genuchten and Hoffman, Dirksen et al., and Homaee et al. were used to predict the relative seedling numbers and relative transpiration. To compare the models and their efficiency, the Modified Coefficient Efficiency (), Modified Index of Agreement () and Coefficient of Residual Mass (CRM) statistics were calculated. Results indicate that Homaee et al. model provides a reasonable prediction at the first growth stage (E), while Maas and Hoffman model can provide relatively better predictions at the second and third growth stages.

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