Abstract
High boron (B) often occurs in saline and arid soils and exerts toxicity to plants. A potting experiment was conducted to examine the effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) on alleviating B toxicity in an alkali grass, Puccinellia tenuiflora, in saline and arid soils. As a B-tolerant species, P. tenuiflora grew well in soil with high concentration (300 mg kg−1) of B under the combined stresses of salt and drought. N and P have significantly increased plant biomass and decreased B concentrations in plants by 14.5%–31.4% in the shoot and 22.3%–41.5% in the root, respectively. The results indicate that the addition of fertilizer enforced photosynthesis of plant and decreased K+/Na+ ratio. Our results suggest that N and P can be used to alleviate B toxicity in P. tenuiflora under the combined stresses of salt and drought.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.