Relationship Between Seed Yield and Shoot Ions at Vegetative and Reproductive Stages of Rapeseed Genotypes under Saline Environment

Soil salinity is a major constraint to crop production in many areas of the world. To investigate the effects of salinity stress on seed yield and shoot ions at vegetative and reproductive stages, a factorial experiment was applied for evaluating the seven rapeseed genotypes under four salinity levels including 0, 4, 8 and 12 dsm-1. The salt solution was prepared by taking NaCl:CaCl2 in the ratio of 1:1. Significant mean square of salinity levels were exhibited for seed yield and all shoot ions at two growth stages except Ca at reproductive stage. Due to increasing salinity levels Ca at vegetative stage was increased in L14 and Zarfam but in other genotypes it was not affected by increasing salinity levels. Significant negative correlation of K with Na and Cl indicating the ameliorating effect of K on toxic effects of Na and Cl. Due to adverse effect of Cl on seed yield, the correlation of this ion with seed yield was significant and negative at vegetative and reproductive stages. Significant positive correlation of K content at vegetative stage with seed yield implied that K at this stage can be used as selection criterion for detecting high seed yield genotypes in saline environment.