Abiotic stress impact on the viability of seed samples of field crop varieties

Abstract

Environmental impacts often determine plant growth and development altering physiological processes. From among abiotic influencing factors temperature and salinity are crucial regarding the viability of crop plants. An assessment study has been done at the Szent István University, Gödöllő to evaluate and identify the impact of various levels temperature as well as ascending concentrations of NaCl on the germination of seed samples of field crop species. Five field crop species (winter wheat Triticum aestivum L, maize Zea mays L, sunflower Helianthus annuus L, millet Panicum miliaceum L and sorghum Sorghum bicolor L) originated from two countries – Hungary and Pakistan - were involved in the study. The results obtained support the known evidence, that the five examined species performed well under optimum conditions for germination, e.g. 20 oC temperature and 0 salinity. On the other hand, low temperature and high salt concentration resulted in no germination regardless to the crop species. From among the field crop species wheat proved to be the most tolerant to NaCl affects, with millet next to that. Sorghum was found to be the most vulnerable crop in the study. The geographic origin of the crops was remarkable. Pakistani and Hungarian wheat crops both performed well. Similar results were obtained with both sunflower crops. Pakistani sorghum and millet proved to be better than the Hungarian ones. Hungarian maize had better performance than the Pakistani hybrid.