Water shortage reduces silicon uptake in barley leaves

Mateja Grašič, Maja Dobravc, Aleksandra Golob, Katarina Vogel-Mikuš and Alenka Gaberščik

Agricultural Water Management, 2019, vol. 217, issue C, 47-56

Abstract: Silicon is an increasingly important element in agriculture due to benefits on plant growth and development under stress conditions. Silicon uptake is facilitated by transpiration flow, while plant resistance to drought and ultraviolet radiation are positively related. Thus, we hypothesised that water shortage in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) will hinder uptake of silicon, and possibly other elements, and that reduced ambient ultraviolet radiation will worsen these negative effects of water shortage. Barley plants were exposed to favourable and reduced water availability during growth under ambient and reduced ultraviolet exposure. Element composition and morphological, biochemical, physiological, and optical traits of barley leaves growing under these four treatments were investigated. Water shortage affected the element composition of barley plants significantly. Silicon and chlorine levels were the most reduced by water shortage, followed by calcium, phosphorus, and sulphur, while potassium levels were not affected. Ultraviolet radiation did not have any significant effects on uptake of elements. These plants did not undergo water shortage stress, as photochemical efficiency of photosystem II and pigment contents were similar across all treatments. Water shortage affected reflectance of light across the whole spectrum, while ultraviolet radiation affected optical properties of the barley leaves in the UV region only.

Keywords: Hordeum vulgare L.; Water availability; UV radiation; Element analysis; Accumulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377418306541
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:217:y:2019:i:c:p:47-56

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2019.02.030

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().