Abstract:
In order to investigate the effects of saline-alkali stress on the plant growth, seedling of Heuchera micrantha ‘Silver Fan’ was used as materials, and 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 mmol·L
-1 NaCl and NaHCO
3, and 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 mmol·L
-1 Na
2CO
3, were used to simulate salt stress, salt alkali stress, and alkali stress, respectively. The experiment used 1/4 Hoagland nutrient solution as the control, and used water culture method to treat seedlings for 0, 7 and 14 d. The response of plants was observed from aspects such as salt damage rate and physiological indicators, and the effects of salt stress on the growth of ‘Silver Fan’ seedlings were analyzed and evaluated by principal component analysis of 7 indicators. The results showed that under different salt alkali stress treatments, the relative conductivity and malondialdehyde content(MDA) of the seedlings showed an increasing trend with time and concentration. The seedlings treated with 30 mmol·L
-1 NaCl or NaHCO
3 showed no obvious symptoms of salt damage, and all physiological indicators showed an upward trend with the prolongation of treatment time; With the increase of concentration and stress time, the salt damage index of seedlings increased, but the ornamental value decreased. The overall trend of superoxide dismutase(SOD) increased first and then decreased, reaching the maximum value at 90 mmol·L
-1 NaCl and 60 mmol·L
-1 NaHCO3, respectively. Under the same stress time, the contents of chlorophyll(Chl), chlorophyll a(Chla), and chlorophyll b(Chlb) decreased continuously, while ρ(Chla)/ρ(Chlb) increased with the increase of stress concentration. Under different concentrations of Na
2CO
3 stress, the SOD activity generally showed an upward trend, reaching the maximum value at 50 mmol·L
-1, and the contents of Chl, Chla, and Chlb generally showed a downward trend. However, under the same time conditions of stress, ρ(Chla)/ρ(Chlb) decreased first and then increased with the concentration increasing, and the ratio of ρ(Chla)/ρ(Chlb) was the smallest under 40 mmol·L
-1 treatment. In general, ‘Silver Fan’ seedlings had a certain salt alkali resistance ability, and could grow at NaCl concentration<90 mmol·L
-1, NaHCO3 concentration<60 mmol·L
-1, and Na
2CO
3 concentration<40 mmol·L
-1, and had certain ornamental value, respectively. The results of principal component analysis showed that the relative conductivity, Chla, and Chlb contents could be used as indicators for evaluating the salt alkali resistance of the ‘Silver Fan’.