Effects of drought and salinity on Avicennia marina seedlings under different non-structural carbohydrate levels
Sridevi Ravi
Plants are exposed to various stress factors imposed by climate change, with drought
being the most important affecting plant life. Sensitivity to drought has the potential to
affect future distributions of plant species.
Mechanistic explanations of drought
induced tree mortality to date are inconclusive and revised continuously. NSCs within
the plant are essential in coping with drought. Mangroves are halophytes and spend a
considerable part of their lifetime submerged in water. The saline anoxic soil condition
induces physiological drought, which affects the water uptake. This project aims to
understand the role of non-structural carbohydrates in coping with low soil water
potential stress caused via both drought and salinity.
The aim of my presentation is to present an overview of my research, including its
experimental design and the preliminary results.
I aim to understand how the non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) aid in coping with low
soil water potential stress caused via both drought and salinity.
To answer this
question, the non-structural carbohydrates is manipulated in the seedlings of New
Zealand mangrove seedlings, Avicennia marina. The manipulation is achieved by
subjecting growing plants to two light conditions. The two conditions are: low to high
light, and high to low light. This is expected to yield high NSC and low levels of NSCs in
the two respective groups. After this, the plants were subject to different salinity and
drought conditions, and physiological measurements were made.
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