As coastal flooding threatens more farmer acres, a UMES horticulturalists is looking for crop varieties that will withstand more of the punishment from elevated salt levels in the soil.
Naveen Kumar Dixit and a team of students are evaluating varieties of soybeans and strawberries for salt tolerance as part of a USDA-funded research addressing climate change.
"The problem is coming slow, so we have to be ready and help farmers prepare," he said.
In soybeans, Dixit started in 2021 evaluating three commercially available varieties for salt tolerance and returned to the work in 2023 and is continuing it this year.
Four treatments and controls ranging from no salt to 150 milimolars (mM.) For comparison, ocean water's salt content is about 480 mM.
For leaf studies, seeds were planted in pots of sterilized vermiculite and kept on a plastic saucer in a greenhouse to provide water and nutrients from the bottom of the pots. Salt treatments were provided by adding one liter of the different concentrations before planting seeds. Plants were grown for 100 days.
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