Halophytic plants are, by definition, well adapted to saline soils. However, even halophytes can face nutritional imbalance and the accumulation of high levels of compounds such as oxalic acid (OA), and nitrate (NO3−). These compounds compromise the potential nutritional health benefits associated with salt-tolerant plants such as Portulaca oleracea or Purslane. Purslane has long been known to be a highly nutritious leafy vegetable particularly with respect to high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Thus, preventing the accumulation of non-nutritional compounds will allow plants to be grown in saline conditions as crops. Two ecotypes (ET and RN) of Portulaca oleracea plants were grown under growth room conditions with two levels of salinity (0, 50 mM NaCl) and three ratios of nitrate: ammonium (0:100%; 33:66%; 25:75% NO3−:NH4+). The results show that both ecotypes, when exposed to elevated NO3−, showed severe leaf chlorosis, high levels of OA, citric acid, and malic acid. Compared to ecotype RN, ecotype ET, exposed to elevated NH4+ concentrations (33% and 75%) and 50 mM NaCl, displayed a marked reduction in OA content, increased total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, crude protein content, total fatty acid (TFA) and α-Linolenic acid (ALA), enhancing leaf quality. This opens the potential to grow high biomass, low OA P. oleracae crops. Lastly, our experiments suggest that ecotype ET copes with saline conditions and elevated NH4+ through shifts in leaf metabolites.
Jordan is a country dominated by arid climate and fragile ecological system, where 91% is classified as arid land with annual average rainfall rarely exceeds 200 mm/y. Therefore, land degradation, soil erosion and desertification are important areas of interest, where soil erosion is considered one of the major causes for land degradation in Jordan. The main objective of this study is to create an erosion hazard map and identify the areas susceptible to soil erosion in Erak Al karak watershed in southern part of Jordan. Soil erosion model RUSLE with the integration of GIS tools has been developed to estimate the annual soil loss. The estimated mean annual soil loss is (38.7 ton/ ha/year). The erosion map produced highlighted the hot spot areas susceptible to soil erosion. A relationship was obvious between terraces land use and soil loss, where 22% of the soil loss was reduced by applying soil conservation technique (terraces). According to this model, most of the hot spot areas are located in the rangeland 63% while the agricultural areas are responsible for 14% of the hot spot areas. The results emphasis the importance of urgent land use planning and conservation practices to reduce the impact of soil erosion.
Halophytic plants are, by definition, well adapted to saline soils. However, even halophytes can face nutritional imbalance and accumulation of high levels of compounds such as oxalic acid (OA), and nitrate (NO3¯). These compounds compromise the potential nutritional health benefits associated with salt tolerant plants such as Portulaca oleracea. Thus, preventing the accumulation of non-nutritional compounds will allow plants to be grown in saline conditions as crops. To this end, two ecotypes (ET and RN) of Portulaca oleracea plants were grown under growth room conditions with two levels of salinity (0, 50 mM NaCl) and three ratios of nitrate: ammonium (0:100%; 33:66%; 25:75% NO3¯:NH4+). The results showed that both ecotypes exposed to elevated NO3¯, showed severe leaf chlorosis, high levels of OA, citric acid, and malic acid, while plants of ecotype ET exposed to elevated NH4+ concentrations (33% and 75%) and 50 mM NaCl displayed a marked reduction in OA content, increased total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, crude protein content, total fatty acid (TFA) and α-Linolenic acid (ALA) thus enhancing leaf quality. This opens the potential to grow high biomass, low OA P. oleracae crops. Lastly, our experiments suggest that ecotype ET copes with saline conditions and elevated NH4+ through shifts in leaf metabolites.
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