r. yazdani biouki

To investigate the effects of irrigation water salinity (3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 dS.m-1) on morphophysiological characteristics of seedless barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) aerial parts, an experiment was conducted using drained big pots in a completely randomized design with three replications at the central station of National Salinity Research Center, Yazd during 2018-2021 years. The salinity levels affected the height, diameter, area, and volume of plants canopy, number of new branches, number of new basal shoots, number of leaves per plant, total leaves area, leaf area index, leaf dry weight, leaves damage percentage at high temperature, amount of total chlorophyll, chlorophylls a and b, carotenoids, proline, total sugar, leaf anthocyanins, leaf phenols, and antioxidant activity significantly (P<0.01). Based on the results, B. vulgaris tolerated the salinity stress well. Despite the growth reduction at salinity levels above 9 dS.m-1, plant physiological resistance was observed through the production of secondary osmolytes and survival under saline conditions up to 12 dS.m-1. Accordingly, in suitable barberry production habitats, it is possible to take advantage of water resources and saline soil to grow seedless barberry, especially to increase phenolics, by ture management of the root environment and control of the saturated soil extract salinity up to 12 dS.m-1.

Damask rose (Rosa damascene Mill) is one of the most important and economical rose species in Iran. After drought, salinity is the second most common environmental stress limiting agricultural production. In order to investigate the effect of salinity stress on Damask rose, an experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications in the lysimeter condition at the Research Greenhouse of National Salinity Research Center during 2018-2019 growing season. The treatments were four levels of salinity stress (2.8, 5, 8 and 11 dS m‒1). The results indicated that the effect of different levels of salinity were significant for all traits except the number of branches per plant and the number of petals. The plants treated with the salinity levels of 2.8, 5 and 8 dS m‒1 had a significantly larger number of flowers per plant, flower weight, petal weight, yield flower and essential oil yield, compared to salinity level of 11 dS m‒1. Increasing the salinity level from 2.8 to 11 dS m‒1 caused the reduction in height (41.4%), 11 flowers per plant (47.8%), 0.77 g flower (39.9%), petal weight (18.3%), flower yield (62.4%), and essential oil yield (53.9%). Overall, the results showed that the salinity tolerance threshold of Damask rose of Mahalat was 8 dS m‒1.