The Impact Of Saline Dust On The Physiological Properties Of Plants

The Ebniur Lake Region in the noerwestern part of Xinjiang is located in Junggar Basin and Alataw strong-wind corridor,where the ecosystem are effected by saline dust blowen from the dried-up floor of The Ebniur Lake and the desertification becomes more and more serious.The saline dust carried by the strong-wind deposits on soil and plant in the down wind area as the wind becomes weak.To confirm the effect of saline dust on the vegetation and crops,in this study the leaf samples of some planta,such as Kalidium foliatum?Pall.?Moq.,Alhagi sparsifolia?B.Keller et Shap.?Shap.,Lycium dasystmemum Pojark.,Karelinia caspica?Pall.?Less.and Haloxylon ammodendron?C.A.M.?Bge,were collected.The leaf sap was extracted and leaves were washed by distilled water and the main salt ions were measured to determine the correlation between atmoshpereic saline dust and the salt content on leaf surface and in leaf tissue.Moreover,the impact of saline dust on the crops was simulated in the laboratory,salty deposition collected from Ebinur region and its solution were periodically sprayed on the leaves of crossbreed helianthus G101 and maize 78-16.The main salt cations were digested by three-acid,the main salt anion were extracted by boiled water and measured by titration.The physiological properties were observed.The result shows that there is no clear correlation between the salt content on leaf surface and in leaf tissue and the Plant growth.The leaves of these desert plants excereted Cl^-?SO₄^2-?Na⁺?K⁺?HCO₃^-to some extent during the adaptation to salty soil.Saline dust deposition increased the topsoil salt contents,and the depositon amounts of saline dust on leaves are less than excrement of salt by leaves,so the correlation between them is hardly confirmed.The result of simulated experiment reveals that the impact of the salty deposition and its solution are similar.The absorption of crop leaves to Na⁺is high,The absorption of crop leaves to Na⁺restrictes the absorption to K⁺.There is obvious difference of Mg²⁺content in the leaves of crossbreed helianthus G101 under treatment and without treatment(F=3.504>F_0.05=2.606).The obsortion of maize leaves to Ca²⁺decreases slightly with the time,but that of helianthus leaves increases slightly.The absorption of crop leaves to Cl^-is also high,There is obvious difference of Cl^-content(helianthus F=5.542>F_0.05=3.478,maize F=5.172>F_0.05=3.478)and no obvious difference of SO₄^2-conten in the leaves of crossbreed helianthus G101 under treatment and without treatment.Almost no CO₃^2-measured on the leaves and in leaf tissue.There appeared obvious difference of HCO₃^-content in the leaves of maize(among treatment F=13.940>F_0.01=7.590,between treatment and without treatment F=17.275>F_0.01=5.994)while no difference in theaves of crossbreed helianthus G101 under treatment and without treatment.Almost no CO₃^2-measured on the leaves and in leaf tissue,Maize HCO₃^-content in the leaves under treatment is higher than the without treatment.Main anion contents in the leaves of the two crops have no clear changing trend with the time.The impact of saline dust on the crops was done mainly by absorbing Na⁺,Cl^-and the ion balance in the leaf tissue was changed.Some leaves of maize and helianthus were dried up and helianthus plants were short under the dry salt deposition treatment.