Potential effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in mitigating the salinity of treated wastewater in young olive plants (Olea europaea L. cv. Chetoui)

Ameni Ben Hassena, Mohamed Zouari, Lina Trabelsi, Raphaël Decou, Fathi Ben Amar, Anissa Chaari, Nabil Soua, Pascal Labrousse, Wahid Khabou and Nacim Zouari

Agricultural Water Management, 2021, vol. 245, issue C

Abstract: The reuse of treated wastewater for olive irrigation is becoming a common practice in areas with limited water resources. However, this water may contain high level of salts (Na+ and Cl−) that could affect plant performances when used for a long period. In order to enhance the tolerance of plants to salt stress induced by treated wastewater, the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may be a suitable solution. In this study, the ability of different AMF inoculums to improve young olive plants (Olea europaea L. cv. Chetoui) performances under long term irrigation with treated wastewater was studied. One-year-old olive trees inoculated with Glomus deserticola and/or Gigaspora margarita were irrigated with treated wastewater for one year. As compared to plants irrigated with tap water, treated wastewater irrigation caused a significant decrease in relative water content (RWC), total fresh and dry weights, gas exchange parameters, and chlorophyll and starch contents. Nevertheless, a significant increase in Na+ and Cl−, proline, soluble sugars, total polyphenols as well as flavonoids contents was observed under treated wastewater irrigation. Interestingly, colonization with different AMF inoculums, particularly the 1:1 mixture of G. deserticola and G. margarita, alleviated the negative effect of saline treated wastewater on young olive plants and significantly improved the above parameters. In fact, mycorrhizal symbiosis decreased the Na+ and Cl− contents and improved the RWC, the total fresh and dry weights and the photosynthetic activity. Furthermore, mycorrhizal plants showed higher concentrations of proline and soluble sugars as well as higher antioxidant defense systems as compared to the non-inoculated plants.

Keywords: Olea europaea; Treated wastewater; Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; Salt stress; Gas exchange; Antioxidant defense system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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/S037837742032182X
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:245:y:2021:i:c:s037837742032182x

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106635

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 ().