Respostas e adaptações de plantas de coqueiro "anão verde" ás interações entre deficiência hídrica e salinidade do solo

Abstract

In this work morphological, physiological, biochemical and nutritional responses, to elucidate the possible adaptive strategies of young coconut plants, cultivating "Green Dwarf", involved with tolerance to the effects of stress isolated and combined soil salinity and water stress. In the experiment, conducted in a greenhouse, the greenhouse type, in Fortaleza, Ceará, were evaluated under statistical design of randomized blocks in a split plot arrangement, the effects of different levels of water stress by imposing different percentages resets the potential evapotranspiration - ETpc (20; 40; 60; 80 and 100%), related to increasing levels of soil salinity (1.72, 6.25, 25.80 and 40.70 dS m-1) provided by soils derived from the Irrigated Perimeter Morada Nova - PIMN. The effects of treatments on plants were evaluated using the variables: plant height, leaf number, stem diameter, leaf area, biomass production (root, shoot and total), compared root dry biomass of aerial-1, to salinity tolerance indices, leaf gas exchange (stomatal conductance, transpiration, photosynthesis, instant and intrinsic efficiency of water use), quantum yield of chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv Fm-1) level for total chlorophyll (Spad index) , total content of chlorophyll (a + b) and carotenoids, leaf water potential, leaf and root levels of inorganic solutes (potassium ions, sodium and chloride) and organic (total soluble carbohydrates, N - aminossolúveis and free proline) and nutritional state (foliar nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, copper, manganese and zinc). The growth and biomass production of the plants are sharply reduced by the conditions of water stress and high soil salinity, apparently being more critical to fluid restriction culture. The degree of water stress can enhance the susceptibility to salinity. The physiological mechanisms are effectively limited when water stress and salinity act separately and / or together. The effects of water stress are more effective in the reduction of physiological parameters, to the detriment soil salinity. The magnitudes of physiological responses of plants to water supply and salinity depend on the intensity of stress. Adaptive physiological responses of plants are related mainly to stomatal regulation. In conditions of drought and soil salinity, the plants have linear reductions in the total levels of chlorophyll. Carotenoid levels respond to the combined effects of water availability and soil salinity and reflect the antagonism between them. The coconut has a number of physiological adjustments mechanisms that give the species a partial tolerance to drought stress and / or saline. Saline ions K+, Na+ and Cl- accumulate significantly in young coconut plants, to the detriment of organic solutes, both in the leaves and in the roots, evidencing an apparent root retention ions. Salinity did not change the concentration of organic solutes, however, show up increments in leaf and root levels of free proline in response to water stress. Water stress and soil salinity interact, affecting the nutritional status of plants, except for the nutrient P. Leaf contents of nutrients N, Ca, S, Fe, Mn and Zn grow positively with the increase of water availability and are reduced substantially with increasing salinity. The interaction of smaller water deficit levels with the highest saline levels maximizes the leaf contents of Mg and Cu and minimizes K. During the establishment of coconut seedlings, the need for macronutrients follows the descending order: N, K Ca, Mg, S and P and micronutrients: Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu. The plant nutrition proved to be adequate, except for the imbalances observed in nutrients K, Mg, S and Mn. The coconut seedlings show full capacity of the establishment in saline soils PIMN, corresponding to the level of electrical conductivity to 6.50 dS m-1, but only when the water supply remains adequate. For the higher salinity levels the plants survive, yet the size of the same is reduced by around 50%, even when fully irrigated.