Salinity and drought stress, singly or in combination, are major environmental menaces. Jatropha curcas L. is a biodiesel plant that can tolerate long periods of drought. However, the growth performance and stress tolerance based on physical, chemical, and physiological attributes of this plant have not yet been studied. To address this question, J. curcas seedlings were grown in a completely randomized design in plastic pots filled with soil to evaluate the effects of salinity and drought stresses on growth, ionic composition, and physiological attributes. The experiment consisted of six treatments: control (without salinity and drought stress), salinity alone (7.5 dS m-1, 15 dS m-1), drought, and a combination of salinity and drought (7.5 dS m-1+ Drought, 15 dS m-1+Drought). Our results revealed that, compared with the control, both plant height (PH) and stem diameter (SD) were reduced by (83%, 80%, and 77%) and (69%, 56%, and 55%) under salinity and drought combination (15 dS m-1+Drought) after three, six, and nine months, respectively. There was 93% more leaf Na+ found in plants treated with 15 dS m-1+Drought compared with the control. The highest significant average membrane stability index (MSI) and relative water content (RWC) values (81% and 85%, respectively) were found in the control. The MSI and RWC were not influenced by 7.5 dS m-1 and drought treatments and mostly contributed towards stress tolerance. Our findings imply that J. curcas is moderately tolerant to salinity and drought. The Na+ toxicity and disturbance in K+: Na+ ratio were the main contributing factors for limited growth and physiological attributes in this plant.
Keywords: Jatropha curcas L.; biomass; chlorophyll content; drought stress; ionic composition; salinity; stress tolerance.