Growth performance of different forestry species irrigated with moderately saline wastewater

Abstract

A seven month, pot study was conducted to evaluate the impact of moderately saline wastewater on the growth potential of six forestry plant species viz., Eucalyptus calmaldulensis, Dendrocalamus strictus, Casurina equisetfolia, Cassia fistula, Melia dubia, and Bambusa arundinacea under different drainage conditions namely, well-drained saline (WDS) condition and poor-drained saline condition (PDS) and the control with well-drained non-saline condition. WDS treatment resulted in no mortality whereas PDS treatment resulted in mortality in the range of 33–66%. The plant height and root dry biomass increased in the range of 145% to 221.6% and 4.3–37.1 g respectively in WDS treatment, however, 23.60% to 173.4% and 4.1–10.1 g in PDS treatment. Among all, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Dendrocalamus strictus showed high Na⁺ accumulation in roots (2.16 ± 0.02% and 1.13 ± 0.01%), shoots (1.98 ± 0.01% and 0.74 ± 0.01%) and leaves (1.27 ± 0.02% and 0.86 ± 0.01%) in WDS treatment and in case of PDS treatment root (1.01 ± 0.01% and 0.23 ± 0.01%), shoot (1.12 ± 0.02% and 0.11 ± 0.01%), and leaf (0.07 ± 0.01% and 0.1 ± 0.02). The overall performance of both Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Dendrocalamus strictus was highest in WDS treatment. Therefore, it was concluded, that both plants had better performance than other plant species, a proper drainage system defines the overall productivity and treatment efficiency.

Novelty statement

Forestry is not only a necessity for increasing tree cover and decreasing pressure on natural forests but also a most desired land use plan especially for reclaiming and rehabilitating the degraded lands. This study concluded that salt-affected and waterlogged areas and moderately saline waters can be utilized satisfactorily in raising forests using suitable plant species. Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Dendrocalamus strictus which showed good performance for salt tolerance and survival can be effectively used to mitigate the problems of waterlogged conditions and soil salinity remediation. Utilizing these species extensively can be a sustainable and suitable approach to promote afforestation and mitigate the problems of waterlogged conditions and for green belt development.

Keywords:

• Saline wastewater
• well-drained saline conditions
• poorly drained saline conditions
• forestry plant species
• salt uptake
• biomass

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Director, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur for infrastructure and support. Manuscript has been checked by iThenticate Anti-plagiarism software and has been approved to be published vide KRC No. CSIR-NEERI/KRC/2021/OCT/KZC-EBGD/1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).