Effects of Silicon on Growth of Wheat Under Drought

By H. Gong, Kun-Ming Chen, Guo-cang Chen, Suo-min Wang, Cheng-lie Zhang. 2003

327 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Plants of wheat growing in pots with silicon (Si) applied before sowing had greater plant height, leaf area, and dry materials compared to those without Si applied in well watering conditions. Drought stress was applied by withholding watering for 12 days from 26‐day old seedlings. In the stress conditions, plants growing in Si‐applied soil could maintain higher relative water content (RWC), water potential and leaf area compared to those without Si applied. Moreover, the Si applied plant dry materials were not significantly changed by drought while those of plants growing in pots without Si applied were significantly decreased, and this was mainly due to growth inhibition of the shoots. Drought stressed wheat growing in pots with Si applied had a significantly greater leaf weight ratio (LWR) and lower specific leaf area (SLA) compared to those of stressed plants in the absence of applied Si. This demonstrates that the leaves of stressed plants growing in pots with Si applied were thicker compared to those without Si applied. This may have a beneficial effect by reducing the transpirational loss of water and maintain high RWC and water potential. Therefore, application of Si may be one of the available pathways to improve growth of this crop and increase its production in arid or semi arid areas.

Subfields: Geochemistry and Petrology, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b3a12d330da4da40d7e368bf60db0feaa38ef6fd

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In Geochemistry and Petrology

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Plant drought stress: effects, mechanisms and management (2011, unknown): “It has not been considered an essential element for higher plants yet, partly because its role in plant biology is less well understood (Gong et al., 2003).”
Influence of Silicon on Sunflower Cultivars under Drought Stress, I: Growth, Antioxidant Mechanisms, and Lipid Peroxidation (2008, background): “There are a few studies (Gong et al. 2003; Gao et al. 2004; Hattori et al. 2005) on drought tolerance that focus on the effects of Si on osmotic regulation.”
Growth and Nutrient Use in Four Grasses Under Drought Stress as Mediated by Silicon Fertilizers (2008, background): “Gong et al (2003) showed that silicon-applied wheat suffered no significant loss in dry mass even under drought conditions.”
Drought Stress in Wheat during Flowering and Grain-filling Periods (2014, background): “In another study, wheat plants supplied with Si maintained better water status and accumulated more dry matter compared with non-Si treated plants under drought (Gong et al., 2003).”
Chilling and Drought Stresses in Crop Plants: Implications, Cross Talk, and Potential Management Opportunities (2018, background): “Silicon application improved the plant water status and biomass accumulation in sorghum (Hattori et al., 2005) and wheat (Gong et al., 2003) under drought stress.”
Consistent alleviation of abiotic stress with silicon addition: a meta-analysis. (2016, unknown): “…Yeo et al. 1999; Hara, 200 Gu & Koyama 1999; Iwasaki & Matsumura 1999; Iwasaki et al. 2002b; Rogalla & Roemheld 2002; Zsoldos et al. 201 2003a; b; Gong et al. 2003, 2005; Gong, Randall & Flowers 2006; Gong et al. 2008; Al-Aghabary et al. 2004; Zhu 202 et al. 2004; Shi et al. 2005b, 2010, 2013,…”