TY - JFULL AU - Ahmad Gholami and Saeed Sharafi and Hamid Abbasdokht PY - 2010/9/ TI - Effects of Salinity and Drought Levels in Seed Germination of Five Crop Species T2 - International Journal of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering SP - 535 EP - 539 VL - 4 SN - 1307-6892 UR - https://publications.waset.org/pdf/1408 PU - World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology NX - Open Science Index 44, 2010 N2 - The heterotrophic seedling growth can be defined as a product of two components: (1) the weight of mobilized seed reserve, and (2) conversion efficiency of utilized seed reserve to seedling tissue. The first component can be further divided into (1) initial seed weight, and (2) the fraction of seed reserve, which is mobilized. The objective of this study was the identification of the sensitive seedling growth component(s) in response to drought and salinity stresses. Two experiments were separately conducted using various salinity levels (osmotic pressure) of 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5 MPa created using NaCl as first experiment and by polyethylene glycol (drought stress) of 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.4 MPa in second experiment. Seeds of five crops species (Hordeum vulgare, Brassica napus, Zea mays, Medicago sativa and Medicago scutellata) were used in each experiment. In both experiments, seedling growth, fraction of seed reserve utilization and weight of mobilized seed reserve decreased with increasing drought and salt intensity. However, drought and salinity stresses had no effect on the conversion efficiency. It was concluded that the sensitive component of seedling growth is the weight of mobilized seed reserve. ER -