BIOLOGY PROJECT

NAME : SONAL.V.PUJAR
CLASS : XII “A”
ROLL NO. : 12A 24
YEAR : 2019-20
PROJECT : THE EFFECT OF SALINE WATER ON
THE PLANT GROWTH.
SCHOOL : KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA DGQA

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that SONAL.V.PUJAR of class XII “A” Roll No. 11A24 has
satisfactorily completed her biology project prescribed by CBSE course during the
academic 2019-20.

TEACHER SIGNATURE

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to sincerely and profusely thank our

biology teacher Smt. S.Sripriya PGT [BIOLOGY]
and our lab for attendant for their guidance and
support in completing our project.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our

principal Mrs.T.Mirnalini for providing us with the
facilities that were required.

SIGNATURE OF THE CANDIDATE

INDEX
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S NO. CONTENT PAGENO.
1 INTRODUCTION 05

2 AIM 09
3 APPARATUS 09
4 PROCEDURE 10
5 OBSERVATION 12
6 RESULT 19
7 CONCLUSION 20
8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 24

INTRODUCTION

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Salinity has a dual effect on plant growth via an osmotic
effect on plant water uptake, and specific ion toxicities. The
rate of osmosis (the movement of water across a cell
membrane - in this case, a root hair cell) will be dependent
on the evolutionary history of the plant and the adaptations
it has to accommodate varying soil water salinities. By
decreasing the osmotic potential of the soil solution, plant
access to soil water is decreased, because of the decrease in
total soil water potential. As the soil dries, the concentration
of salt in the soil solution increases, further decreasing the
osmotic potential. In order to maintain water uptake from a
saline soil, plant must osmotically adjust. This is done either
by taking up salts and compartmentalizing them within plant
tissue, or synthesizing organic solutes. Plant which take up
salts generally have a higher salt tolerance and greater
ability to store high salt concentrations in plant tissue
without affecting cell processes, and are know as halophytes.
Plant which synthesis organic solutes are known as
glycophytes, and they try to prevent excess salt uptake
because they can tolerate much lower concentrations of salt

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in plant tissues before cell processes are adversely affected.
In most cases glycophytes tend to be salt sensitive, although
this is not always the case. While these are the two extremes,
most plant utilize a combination of these strategies, and
differences exist between varieties. Even with complete
osmotic adjustment, a reduction in growth may occur due to
the metabolic demands of maintaining osmotic adjustment.
Symptoms of specific element toxicities, such as marginal or
tip burn of leaves, occur as a rule only in woody plant.
Chloride and sodium ions and boron are the elements most
usually associated with toxic symptoms.

While increased uptake of salts may contribute to osmotic

adjustment, Na+ and Cl- toxicity may result. A range of
symptoms have been described, with chlorosis on the tips of
older leaves, developing to necrosis, followed by death of
leaves, common across many species.

Accumulation of excess Na+ may cause metabolic

disturbances in processes where low Na+ and high K+ or Ca2+
are required for optimum function. A decrease in nitrate

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reductase activity, inhibition of photosystem II are all
associated with increased Na+ concentrations. Cell
membrane function may be compromised as a result of Na +
replacing Ca2+, resulting in increased cell leakiness.

While symptoms of Cl- toxicity are frequently documented,

much less information regarding the specific effects of high
Cl- is available. High concentrations of Cl - in leaf tissue may
disrupt photosynthetic function through the inhibition of
nitrate reductase activity. Once the capacity of the cell to
store salts is exhausted, salts build up in the intercellular
space, leading to cell dehydration and death.

A better understanding of the dominant effects involved in

plant response to salinity will facilitate development of
improved varieties and crop management practices.

 HYPOTHESIS
If the amount of the salt is increased, then the plant
growth will decrease. This is because the amounts of
salt will stress plant’s ability to maintain homeostasis,
and plant growth will consequently be lower.
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AIM
To determine the effect of saline water on the growth of plant.

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MATERIAL REQUIRED
 4 plant of same kind and same height

 Salt{NaCl}

 A graduated cylinder that measure in ml.

 4 plant pots

PROCEDURE
 First fill the pots with three-fourth of soil and place the seeds in it.
Repeat this process to rest of three plants.

 Mark each pot with amount of salt that will be mixed with water
that these plants will be watered with it.
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 The first pot will be marked with a 0 gm because there will be 0
gm of salt in the water.

 The following pots will be marked 1.0 gm,1.5 gm,2 gm.

 Give each plant 20 ml of water regularly so that seed will begin

grow.

 Place plant under constant light because if there is not constant

light the plant will die.

 On day two, water each plant with 10 ml with designated amount

of salt for its row.

 Similarly water the plant for next 4 days that is till 6th day from
potted day.

 The day after the plant have watered fifth time, record the data,
but do not water the plant.

 Measure in the centimeters. If the plant are not measured, they

will shrivel and die, therefore effecting the data that will be
recorded.

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OBSERVATION

Water with 0 gm of salt in it.

no. of days Height in cm
Day-1 0.2cm
Day-2 0.8cm
Day-3 1.7cm
Day-4 2.3cm
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Day-5 3.0cm
 The plant with 0 grams of salt in water not only grew the tallest on
average, but also had the fullest stalks, biggest leaves, and
healthiest green color.

 The range of growth was 0.7{approx}cm. The final growth on day-

5 was 3.0cm

Water with 1.0 gm of salt in it

Day-1 0.1 cm
Day-2 0.6 cm
Day-3 1.1 cm
DAY-4 1.6 cm
DAY-5 2.3 cm

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  The plant with 1.0 grams of salt in water grew fewer leaves, had a
slightly brown color, and when it grew, it did not stand completely
erect and drooped slightly.

 There was a 0.6{approx} cm range in plant’s growth. The height on

day-5 was 2.3 cm.

Water with 1.5 gm of salts

No. of days Height in cm

Day-1 0 cm
Day-2 0.4 cm
Day-3 0.9 cm
Day-4 1.3 cm
Day-5 1.7 cm

 The plant with 1.5 grams of salt added had an observable

reaction to the salt. The plant did not grow well. Almost all leaves
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 are wilted. The stalks were mostly brown in color and the leaves
were small and shriveled.

 There was a 0.4{approx} cm range in plant’s growth. The height

on day-5 was 1.7 cm.

Water with 2.0 gm of salt

Day-1 0 cm
Day-2 0.3 cm
Day-3 0.5 cm
Day-4 0.7 cm
Day-5 0.9 cm

 The plant with 2.0 grams of salt grew the worst. The stalks of the
plant were very thin and the plant completely wilted. The plant
were brownish green color and had very small leaves. It was
partly dead.
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 There was a 0.2 cm range in plant’s growth. The height on day-5
was 0.9cm.

GRAPH SHOWING PLANT GROWTH IN EACH CASE

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There is a irregular decrease in plant grown from the plant with 0 gm of
salt added to the plant with 2.0 gm of salt added.

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RESULT

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 Among all the five plants, the plant which was given water with 0
grams of salt grew the tallest. It had a height of 3.0cm. Its range of
height increases 0.7 per day.

 The second highest plant among all other plants was the plant
which was given water of 1 gram of salt. It had a maximum height
of 2.3 cm. It range of increase in height was 0.6 cm.

 Plant -3 had grown to height of 1.7cm due to excess amount of

salt which was added to its water. Its range of increase in height is
0.4 cm.

 Plant-4 was worst among all. This was due the amount salt given it
through water exceeded its tolerance level. So its growth was not
normal.

CONCLUSION
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After conducting the experiment, the hypothesis was proven correct.
The data measured from the experiment proves that as salt is added to
the water that a plant is watered with, the plant growth will decrease.
There was 2.1 cm decrease in the plant growth between the plants with
0 and 2 grams of salt added to water. This clearly proves that hypothesis
was correct. This data means that if the salinity of farming soil and
water could be decreased, while still maintaining minimums needed for
the plants to grow, farming efficiency could be increased.

The optical growing temperature for the plant which I used is between
26 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius. This could not be maintained
throughout the experiment because of closing and opening of windows
and doors in the space where the experiment was kept. Another error
was that plants were needed to be transported from space to another.
Last error was that the reading notes were approximately Correct.
There was some slight Variation in the reading noted. These were the
only experimental errors and the experiment was conducted as planned
aside from these errors.

 There was a decrease in the height from plant-1 to plant-4. This

variation was very high. Healthy plant-1 had a high range of
growth everyday while plant-4 had a very low range of growth
everyday.

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  There was 2.1 cm decrease in height from plant-1 to plant-4. If
further increase in salt will kill the plant before the seed would
grow. As the tolerance level will exceeds above maximum value.

 Experiments in the future could explore how the salinity of the

soil affects plant. As increase or decrease in salt level in soil will
affect the entire plants in that area.

 So it is required to not only check the ph of the soil also the

salinity in soils.

The salt tolerance of a crop may be appraised according to three

criteria:
 Ability of the crop to survive on saline soils,
 Yield of the crop on saline soils, and

 Relative yield of the crop on a saline soil as compared with its

yield
on a non saline soil under similar growing conditions.

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Discussion [on some special cases]
The foliar symptoms observed for both wheat and chickpea were
consistent with those described in the literature for salt stress, or Na+
or Cl- toxicity. The development of toxicity symptoms on the oldest
plant tissues is consistent with accumulation of salts in the plant
tissues until toxic levels are reached.

The differences between wheat and chickpea in the way foliar symptoms
developed may be linked to the accumulation of Na+ in plant tissues.
Wheat appeared water stressed before developing salt stress
symptoms, and had much lower accumulation of Na+. This indicates
that while wheat was able to exclude Na+, maintaining osmotic
adjustment in order to take up water was less successful. Conversely,
chickpea was initially able to maintain water uptake, but accumulated
large amounts of Na+ quickly. This early accumulation of salt may

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 have also served to decrease the osmotic potential of the plant tissues
and facilitate water uptake.

As plant growth progressed, the effects of early salt uptake, or exclusion,

further impacted on plant growth and water extraction. Because
wheat was able to prevent toxic levels of Na+ accumulating, it could
maintain growth and water uptake, which resulted in uniform water
extraction across all treatments, and less impact on growth than
occurred in chickpea. Meanwhile, accumulation of high
concentrations of Na+ in chickpea appears to have resulted in a severe
reduction in growth. At rates of NaCl greater than 1.5g/kg plant
growth was so severely reduced that water extraction ceased.

From this evidence it seems likely that wheat may be reasonably tolerant
of saline conditions, provided that sufficient water supply is

maintained. Chickpea however, is intolerant of saline conditions.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernstein L (1975) Effects of salinity and socidity on plant growth. Annual Review of
Phytopathology 13, 295-312.

Chhipa BR and Lal P (1995) Na/K ratios as the basis of salt tolerance in wheat. Australian
Journal of Agricultural Research 46, 533-539.

Eaton FE (1966) Chlorine. In 'Diagnostic criteria for plants and soils'. (Eds. HD Chapman.) pp.
(Division of Agricultural Science, University of California:

Grundon NJ (1987) 'Hungry crops: a guide to nutrient deficiencies in field crops.' (Queensland
Department of Primary Industries: Brisbane.)

Grundon NJ Edwards DG Takkar PN Asher CJ and Clark RB (1987) 'Nutritional Disorders of

Grain Sorhgum.' (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra.)

Krishnamurthy R Anbazhagan M and Bhagwat. K. A. (1987) Effect of NaCl toxicity of

chlorophyll breakdown in rice. Indian Journal of Agricultural Science 57, 567-570.

Kurniadie D and Redmann RE (1999) Growth and Cl accumulation in soybean cultivars treated
with excess KCl in solution culture. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 30, 699-
709.

Manchanda HR and Sharma SK (1989) Tolerance of Chloride and Sulfate salinity in chickpea
(Cicer arietinum). Journal of Agricultural Science 113, 407-410.

Marschner H (1995) 'Mineral nutrition of higher plants.' (Academic Press: London.)

Munns R (1993) Physiological processes limiting plant growth in saline soils: some dogmas and
hypotheses. Plant, Cell and Env. 16, 15-24.

Orcutt DM and Nilsen ET (2000) 'The physiology of plants under stress: soil and biotic factors.'
(John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: New York.)

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