Salinity Damage to Norfolk Island Pines Caused by Surfactants. I. The Nature of the Problem and Effect of Potassium, Sodium and Chloride Concentration on Uptake by Roots

Abstract

As part of an investigation into the deterioration of Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria heterophylla (Salisb.) Franco, on the coast of eastern Australia, seedlings were grown in nutrient solutions in which sodium was substituted for potassium over the range 0.1 - 2.1 mM to give six treatments, each with four ratios of sulfate to chloride. Potassium was freely taken up and translocated to the shoots, the levels in the shoots being higher than those in the roots. However, the levels of potassium in both shoots and roots were significantly reduced in solutions in which sulfate predominated over chloride. Uptake and translocation of sodium was restricted, the ratio of sodium (shoots) to sodium (roots) being less than unity. The concentration of chloride in the shoots and roots generally increased with increasing solution chloride concentration but was significantly reduced at the lowest potassium-to-sodium ratio. In a second experiment the ratio of sodium to potassium was kept at 50:1, sodium and chloride in the solutions increasing from 2.5 to 460 mM and potassium from 0.05 to 9.2 mM. At the lower concentrations, uptake and translocation followed similar patterns to those found in the first experiment. However at solution concentrations of 20 mM sodium and above, levels of sodium in the shoots exceeded those of potassium and chloride. At sodium chloride concentrations of 260mM - 460mM, plants showed toxic symptoms with salt encrustations appearing on the stems. Analysis of the saturation extracts of soils taken from beneath affected seaside trees showed that the concentrations of sodium and chloride were not sufficiently high to account for the high levels of these elements found in the shoots of affected trees.

Effects of natural and induced pollution on the leaf wax structure of three cypress species

“…This aerosol is heavily contaminated with man-made anionic detergents. The link between the decline symptoms of coastal vegetation and surfactants in aerosol has been described in Italy (GELLINI and PAIERO 1969;GELLINI et al 1983GELLINI et al , 1985LOGLIO et al 1989) and in other countries (PITMAN et al 1977;DEVBZE and SIGOILLOT 1978;TRUMAN and LAMBERT 1978). Experimental studies established that ABS (sodium dodecylbenzenesulphonate), a surfactant often recorded in Tuscany during Libeccio windstorms, was toxic to plants, and degraded the structure of the leaf waxes.…”

Ecophysiological responses of Mediterranean pines to simulated sea aerosol polluted with an anionic surfactant: prospects for biomonitoring

“…All plant species are sensitive to surfactant-polluted sea aerosol, as is shown by the vast literature: Araucaria heterophylla in Australia [15,33,49], Pinus halepensis in the south of France [4][5][6]17] and in the south of Italy [41], P. pinea, P. halepensis [9,[19][20][21]29] and several species of broadleaves and conifers along the Tyrrhenian coast in Italy [38] and the Barcelona coast in Spain [3,32], Acacia cyanophylla and Eucalyptus gomphacephala in the Cap Bon peninsula in Tunisia [16]. The damage to coastal flora occurs primarily in coastlands with highly anthropized inland regions, in coastal areas adjacent to river mouths or sewage outlets, and anywhere sea currents and winds concentrate urban and industrial effluents at the sea-surface.…”

The role of marine salt and surfactants in the decline of Tyrrhenian coastal vegetation in Italy

“…A second set of research studies followed in the 1980s (Gellini et al, 1981(Gellini et al, , 1982(Gellini et al, , 1983(Gellini et al, , 1985(Gellini et al, , 1987Bussotti et al, 1984;Guidi et al, 1988;Innamorati et al, 1989;Grossoni et al, 1990), also focusing on San Rossore. In the meantime studies were also carried out in Australia (Pitman et al, 1977;Dowden et al, 1978; Grieve and Pitman, 1978;Truman and Lambert, 1978;Dowden and Lambert, 1979;Moodie et al, 1986), in France (Devèze and Sigoillot, 1978;Sigoillot et al, 1981;Sigoillot, 1982;Garrec and Sigoillot, 1992;Badot and Garrec, 1993) and, more recently, in Spain along the coast near Barcelona (Astorga et al, 1993). In all the areas studied the damage is located near urban zones or near wastewater collector tanks and extends inland for a stretch of a few hundred metres or at most 1 km.…”