Abstract
Species of some local halophyte in Tunisia are potentially important for fodder production. However, their biomass production is often limited due to scarcity of water in arid zones. Since seawater irrigation could improve halophytes production up to certain extent, it was used to study growth, water nutrition and mineral status of two fodder halophytes, i.e Suaeda fruticosa and Spartina alterniflora, with or without mineral amendments. Our results have shown that these two halophytes species produced low biomass (less than 10% of maximal growth) when grown under 50% seawater irrigation. Nitrogen and Phosphorus amendment in sea water have improved growth significantly and increased their concentration in plant tissues. These results indicate that nitrogen and at lesser extent phosphorus were the most growth limiting nutrient for culture under seawater. Biomass production of plants grown on seawater amended with phosphorus and nitrogen only was similar to that of plants cultivated under full nutrient solution. Hence it appear that all the essential minerals except nitrogen and phosphorus are available in sea water for optimum growth of halophytic plants.
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Sleimi, N., Abdelly, C. (2002). Growth and mineral nutrition of some halophytes under seawater irrigation. In: Ahmad, R., Malik, K.A. (eds) Prospects for Saline Agriculture. Tasks for vegetation science, vol 37. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0067-2_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0067-2_41
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