Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
ABSTRACT Among abiotic factors, salinity is causing increasingly devastating consequences for crop growth and productivity as it expands globally. The yield of crops is reliant on the types of salts, their severity and the type of plant—whether it is a glycophyte or halophyte—because various salts are present in ionic forms in salt‐affected soils. These diverse salts, whether occurring alone or in combination, exert varying effects on plant physiology and the plant's tolerance mechanisms. To comprehensively understand the comparative influences of different salt sources on the physiological and biochemical traits of maize, which are relatively sensitive to salinity, it is essential to examine their threshold levels under saline conditions. A pot experiment was conducted under saline conditions using two different salts, NaCl and Na 2 SO 4 , applied individually and in combination (NaCl + Na 2 SO 4 ) at a 1:1 ratio across five salinity levels: 0, 7, 10, 13 and 16 dS m −1 , including a control that remained untreated. The results depicted that the parameters regarding physiological attributes (relative water contents RWC, electrolyte leakage EL and membrane stability index MSI), biochemical attributes (proline and malondialdehyde MDA), antioxidant enzymes (catalase CAT, peroxidase POD and superoxide dismutase SOD) and N use efficiencies (N use efficiency NUE, physiological N efficiency PNE, N yield efficiency NYE, N harvest index NHI and photosynthetic N use efficiency PNUE) of maize were affected negatively by increasing the concentrations of salts. However, the severity of these effects was highly pronounced with NaCl at all concentrations from 7 to 16 dSm −1 of salinity stress as compared to Na 2 SO 4 and their mixtures. This is primarily due to the buildup of Na + and Cl − ions in high concentrations, particularly at 16 dS m −1 . The outcomes highlight the significance of managing naturally existing salt sources in soils worldwide to alleviate their damaging effects on maize cultivation and to enhance crop resilience and productivity.
Javed et al. (Sun,) studied this question.