Meeting the challenge of salinity: Evaluation of selected rootstocks for response to salinity

Salinity has a broad range of effects on plants, therefore, there are also many different mechanisms for plants to tolerate this stress. Plants can reduce toxicity by reducing accumulation of toxic ions in the leaf blades (Na+ and Cl− exclusion), and/or by increasing their ability to tolerate the salts that they have failed to exclude from the shoot, such as by compartmentation into vacuoles (tissue tolerance; Munns and Tester 2008). The influence of chloride concentrations and other elements in the leaves was studied because California growers are faced with having to use irrigation water high in salts, especially high in sodium and chloride.