Salinity Tolerance in Some Bitter Vetch Ecotypes in Germination Stage

Salinity stress is one of most important factors limiting the growth and production of plants in arid and semi-arid regions of the world such as Iran.

In order to evaluate the response of some bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia L.) ecotypes to salinity stress at germination stage an experiment was conducted as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications in the laboratories of Faculty of Agriculture at Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan in 2019. Eight bitter vetch ecotypes were evaluated at four salinity levels (30, 50, 70 and 90 mM of NaCl). Shoot length, root length, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, germination percentage, germination rate and seed vigor index were measured.

The results of variance analysis showed significant effects of salinity and ecotype on the most evaluated traits. According to the results of mean comparison of the studied traits, with increasing salinity from the 30 mM to 50, 70 and 90 mM, all traits showed significant decrease. Principle components analysis based on the evaluated traits for salinity stress showed 76.7, 82.5, 88.6 and 89.5 percentages of the changes by the first and second components, respectively, at the 30, 50, 70 and 90 mM NaCl. Cluster analysis based on the measured traits at 30, 50, 70 and 90 mM levels classified the studied ecotypes in separate groups.

Regarding to byplot and cluster analysis, Dashbolagh ecotype in terms of tolerance to stress in different levels of salinity were superior to other ecotypes in this experiment and could be used in breeding programs.