The potential of silicate fertilizer for salinity stress alleviation on red rice (Oryza sativa L. ‘Sembada Merah’)

Abstract

Climate change causes an increase in soil salinity, hence reduce rice growth and productivity. The application of silicate fertilizer as a source of silicon (Si) can be encouraged to enhance the rice tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses. This study aimed to analyze the potential of silicate fertilizer to alleviate the salinity stress on red rice. A pot experiments was conducted to observe the physiological and biochemical aspects. Rice seedlings were treated with three doses of rice husk ash/RHA (0, 4, and 8 tons ha-1), and three levels of salinity stress, namely control (0 dS m-1), low (3 dS m-1), moderate (7 dS m-1), and high (10 dS m-1). The observed parameters were plant height, number of tillers, plant biomass, activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT), levels of chlorophyll, carotenoid and proline. The results showed the growth of red rice ‘Sembada Merah’ was inhibited by moderate and high salinity stress as indicated by a decrease in plant height, number of tillers and plant biomass. Photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll and carotenoid levels decreased with the increasing salinity stress. RHA application increased SOD activity as a response to enhance salinity stress tolerance. At doses of 4 t ha-1, RHA could maintain rice growth up to moderate salinity stress.

The combined use of silicon and arbuscular mycorrhizas to mitigate salinity and drought stress in rice

“…Silicon also helps plants maintain membrane function such as selective permeability and reduces the malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, the end product of lipid-peroxidation (Gong et al, 2005;Liang et al, 2003;Xu et al, 2017;Zhu et al, 2004). Despite this multitude of sources attesting to the beneficial effects of Si with regard to amelioration of drought and salt-induced oxidative stress (Cassol et al, 2020;Kumar et al, 2019a;Ming et al, 2012;Rachmawati et al, 2020;Yan et al, 2020), the mechanisms remain largely unknown. It has been suggested that Si is involved in regulating the expression of genes that encode antioxidant enzymes, such as TaSOD, TaCAT, and TaAPX (Gong et al, 2008).…”