Effect of different levels of water salinity on evapotranspiration and yield of Atriplex canescens

Evapotranspiration as an important component of the hydrological cycle plays a major role in the study of water balance in watersheds. The purpose of present research was to investigate the response of Atriplex canescens to different levels of water salinity and the effect of irrigation water salinity levels on actual evapotranspiration under lysimetric conditions. For this purpose, four treatments inclusive 0, 25%, 50%, and 75% of maximum salinity tolerance of Atriplex canescens with 3 replications were considered which equal as zero, 19.6, 39.2, and 58.8 ds/m of Sodium Chloride. The lysimeters were placed in greenhouse and two Atriplex canescen shrubs were cultivated in per lysimeter. 5 liters of water with mentioned salinities were added to each lysimeter every two weeks. During the vegetative period of the plant, from 6th March to 15th of August of 2019, the measurement of evapotranspiration was done by weighing the lysimeters at intervals of one week. After the end of the experiments, the weights of shoots and roots of each treatment were measured in wet and dry situation. The results showed that evapotranspiration decreased from 3.94 to 2.84 liters with increasing salinity of irrigation water from zero to 58.8 ds/m, and there was a significant difference between control and 58.8 ds/m salinity treatments at 5% level. By increasing salinity from 0 to 19.6, 39.2 and 58.8 ds/m, the dry weight of shoots increased compared to control treatment 20.13%, 41.87% and 11.55% respectively. Therefore, with the conditions of the present researchو Atriplex Canescens was produced the highest amount of dry shoot in 39.2 ds/m salinity.