Amendments to saline-sodic soils showed long-term effects on improving growth and yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Dandan Zhao; Zhichun Wang; Fan Yang; Wendong Zhu; Fenghua An; Hongyuan Ma; Tibor Tóth; Xu Liao; Hongtao Yang; Lu Zhang

doi:10.7717/peerj.8726

Amendments to saline-sodic soils showed long-term effects on improving growth and yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.)

PeerJ. 2020 Mar 10:8:e8726. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8726. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Dandan Zhao^{1

2}, Zhichun Wang¹, Fan Yang¹, Wendong Zhu^{1

2}, Fenghua An¹, Hongyuan Ma¹, Tibor Tóth³, Xu Liao¹, Hongtao Yang¹, Lu Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.

Abstract

Background: Saline-sodic soils are widely distributed in arid and semi-arid regions around the world. High levels of salt and sodium inhibit the growth and development of crops. However, there has been limited reports on both osmotic potential in soil solutions (OP_ss) and characteristics of Na⁺ and K⁺ absorption in rice in saline-sodic soils under various amendments application.

Methods: A field experiment was conducted between 2009 and 2017 to analyze the influence of amendments addition to saline-sodic soils on rice growth and yield. Rice was grown in the soil with no amendment (CK), with desulfurization gypsum (DG), with sandy soil (SS), with farmyard manure (FM) and with the mixture of above amendments (M). The osmotic potential in soil solution, selective absorption of K⁺ over Na⁺ (SA), selective transport of K⁺ over Na⁺ (ST), the distribution of K⁺ and Na⁺and yield components in rice plants were investigated.

Results: The results indicated that amendments application have positive effects on rice yield. The M treatment was the best among the tested amendments with the highest rice grain yield. M treatment increased the OP_ss values significantly to relieve the inhibition of the water uptake by plants. Additionally, the M treatment significantly enhanced K⁺ concentration and impeded Na⁺ accumulation in shoots. SA values were reduced while ST values were increased for all amendments. In conclusion, a mixture of desulfurization gypsum, sandy soil and farmyard manure was the best treatment for the improvement of rice growth and yield in the Songnen Plain, northeast China.

Keywords: Ion distribution; Oryza sativa L.; Osmotic potential; Selective absorption; Yield.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research & Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC0501200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41571210 and 41771250), the Science-technology Development Initiative of Jilin Province (No. 20180201012SF), and CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative, PIFI. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.