Global warming promotes soil calcification and salinization processes. As a result, soil phosphorus (P) is becoming deficient in arid and semiarid areas throughout the world. In this pot study, we evaluated the potential of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) for enhancing the growth and P uptake in maize under varying levels of lime (4.8%, 10%, 15% and 20%) and additional P supplements (farmyard manure, poultry manure, single super phosphate and rock phosphate) added at the rate of 45 mg P2O5 kg−1. Inoculation and application of P as organic manures (Poultry and farm yard manures) improved maize growth and P uptake compared to the control and soils with P applied from mineral sources. Liming adversely affected crop growth, but the use of PSB and organic manure significantly neutralized this harmful effect. Mineral P sources combined with PSB were as effective as the organic sources alone. Furthermore, while single supper phosphate showed better results than Rock phosphate, the latter performed comparably upon PSB inoculation. Thus, PSB plus P application as organic manures is an eco-friendly option to improve crop growth and P nutrition in a calcareous soil under changing climate.

Tetraena mandavillei L. is a perennial shrub native to the Middle Eastern countries of Asia, which is extensively regarded as a drought-tolerant plant. However, the plant reduces growth and biomass when grown in high concentrations of sodium chloride in the soil. We conducted a pot experiment to influence the negative impact of different levels of salinity (0, 10, and 20 dSm −1 ) and drought stress (100, 80, 60, and 40% water field capacity), to study different growth-related parameters, physiological alterations and ion uptake by T. mandavillei. Both salinity and drought stress caused a negative impact by affecting several attributes of T. mandavillei, but the plants showed some resistance against drought stress conditions in terms of growth and biomass. In addition to that, we noticed that a combinatorial and individual impact of drought and salinity stress decreased photosynthetic pigments and gas exchange parameters in T. mandavillei. Results also depicted that the combination of the abiotic stress conditions drought and salinity induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), indicating that the plants undergo oxidative damaged.

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Various ecotypes of Sporobolus spicatus were screened for their suitability as turf grass in public landscape. The experiment was conducted during the year 2014, where 50 ecotypes of Sporobolus spicatus were tested against different salinity levels, i.e. 0, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75dSm -1 . Significant differences were recorded for different agronomic parameters such as green cover, canopy stiffness and salinity of leaf rinseates. Many of the ecotypes supplied with saline water up to 30dSm -1 gave better performance in terms of green cover, canopy stiffness and salinity of leaf rinseates. However, beyond this level, the grasses' green cover decreased and most of the ecotypes ceased to grow, though some of the ecotypes survived even at salinity levels of 75dSm -1 . Most of the ecotypes were found better than Paspalum vaginatum, the prevailing commercial turf grass in UAE (used as control in this instance). Ecotypes ARDS1, AQDS1, SAADS1, RS2 and RADS2 performed well at high salt levels and maintained major quality attributes such as green cover and canopy stiffness up to acceptable level. Based on their performance, these ecotypes can be recommended for turf use in public landscape under saline conditions.