The growth and physiology characteristics of mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb l.) and hawthorn (Crataegus aronia l.) seedlings to drought stress

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 1 M.Sc. Student, Forestry Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University

2 Forestry Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University.

3 Ph.D Student, Forestry Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Drought stress is one of the most important environmental factors affecting the photosynthesis and plant growth performance. This study aims at evaluating the effects of water deficit on growth and physiological characteristics of mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb L.) and hawthorn (Crataegus aronia L.) seedlings in 60 days. For this purpose, an experiment was performed as completely randomized design in two irrigation treatments (50% field capacity, and control based on field capacity) with 5 replicates. In both species, water stress decreased the photosynthesis, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate (respectively, 64%, 68%, 62% for Crataegus, and 61%, 47%, 61% for Prunus). This is while that, in both species, particularly Crataegus, the electrolyte leakage increased (31% for Crataegus and 23% for Prunus) following the decrease of relative water content of leaf. Water deficit caused the decrease of stem growth (44%) and diameter growth (39%) in Prunus compared to control. Such a trend more or less was found with Crataegus seedlings. Contrary to Crataegus, in Prunus, significant correlation was detected between physiological parameters and total plant biomass. Likewise, in both species the most morpho-physiological characteristics of seedlings were declined under drought stress.

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Iranian Journal of Forest
Volume 8, Issue 3
December 2016
Pages 277-289

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History

  • Receive Date: 23 July 2014
  • Revise Date: 16 June 2015
  • Accept Date: 09 October 2015

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