The present solution culture experiments were conducted in a bid to screen ten eucalyptus species for
their growth response to salinity in the rooting environment. Three months old seedlings were grown with
and without 150 mol m-3 NaCl salinity in a solution culture experiment for eight weeks. Species differed
significantly for plant height, shoot and root dry weights at both salinity levels. Increased NaCl salinity
significantly suppressed shoot and root biomass with varying degrees. Two species viz. E. camaldulensis
(Salt sensitive) and E. occidentalis (Salt tolerant) were selected on the basis of their relative shoot dry
weight. Both of these species were further grown in solution culture experiment to reconfirm growth
response and ionic composition as affected by salinity stress. Absolute shoot and root biomass was
significantly higher in E. camaldulensis as in the first experiment. Growth response of E. occidentalis to
applied NaCl salinity was not consistent in this experiment as indicated by its relative shoot dry weight.
The inconsistent behavior was attributed to higher temperature and relative humidity in second experiment
which aggravated the hazardous effects of salinity in this species. Increased NaCl salinity in root
environment significantly increased Na+ and Cl-1 concentration in leaves of both species. However,
salinity did not affected K+ concentration significantly in E. occidentalis. E. camaldulensis although
exhibited low relative production at high salinity yet performed better in terms of absolute growth at control
as well as at 150 mol m-3 NaCl salinity. Hence may be recommended to be used for rehabilitation of
saline lands
Muhammad Nasim, R.H. Qureshi, Tariq Aziz, M. Saqib, Shafqat Nawaz, Shahbaz Talib Sahi, Shahid Pervaiz. (2007) Screening Trees For Salinity Tolerance: A Case-study With Ten Eucalyptus Species, , Volume-44, Issue-3.
