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297© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
M. Hasanuzzaman et al. (eds.), Plant Nutrients and Abiotic Stress Tolerance,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-9044-8_13
Chapter 13
Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under
Saline Soil Conditions
HassanEl-Ramady, TarekAlshaal, NevienElhawat, AzzaGhazi,
TamerElsakhawy, AlaaEl-DeinOmara, SaharEl-Nahrawy,
MohammedElmahrouk, NeamaAbdalla, ÉvaDomokos-Szabolcsy,
andEwaldSchnug
Abstract It is well established that the nutrients of plant play a vital role in all plant
processes starting from the emergence, development, productivity, and metabolism
reaching to the promotion and protection of plants. These plant nutrients could be in
general characterized as macronutrients (e.g., Ca, Mg S, N, K, and P) and micronu-
trients (i.e., Fe, B, Cu, Mn, Cl, Ni, Mo, Co, and Zn) as well as benecial elements
(e.g., Si, Se, Na, and V). These previous mineral nutrients also could protect crop
plants against both abiotic and biotic stresses by enhancing the plant resistance
power and regulating the mineral nutritional status. Therefore, any plant nutritional
H. El-Ramady (*) · T. Alshaal
Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University,
Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt
N. Elhawat
Biological and Environmental Science Department, Faculty of Home Economics, Al-Azhar
University, Cairo, Egypt
A. Ghazi · T. Elsakhawy · A. E.-D. Omara · S. El-Nahrawy
Agriculture Microbiology Department, Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute
(SWERI), Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Agriculture Research Center (ARC),
Giza, Egypt
M. Elmahrouk
Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University,
Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt
N. Abdalla
Plant Biotechnology Department, Genetic Engineering Division, National Research Center,
Giza, Egypt
É. Domokos-Szabolcsy
Agricultural Botany, Plant Physiology and Plant Biotechnology Department, Debrecen
University, Debrecen, Hungary
E. Schnug
Institute of Crop and Soil Science (JKI), Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants,
Braunschweig, Germany
298
problems (like poor soil fertility, imbalance, and deprived delivery of nutrients)
denitely will lead to reduce the global production of foods. Thus, it should protect
crop production from different stresses through the appropriate agricultural man-
agement. Soil salinity was and still one of these plant stresses. A distinguished role
of plant nutrients (e.g., N, K, Se, and Si) in ameliorating soil salinity stress has been
reported as well as nano-selenium and nano-silica. Several reports have conrmed
the great role of these previous plant nutrients under saline soil conditions. Therefore,
this review will focus on the role of selenium and silicon in conventional and nano-
forms under saline soil conditions. The phytoremediation of these saline soils and
the role of plant nutrients will be also highlighted.
Keywords Plant nutrients · Saline soils · Abiotic stresses · Salinity stress ·
Selenium · Silicon · Nano-selenium · Nano-silica
13.1 Introduction
It is well known that plants need many essential and benecial nutrients like other
living organisms (e.g., humans and animals). These nutrients include carbon, oxy-
gen, hydrogen, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron,
copper, boron, molybdenum, manganese, chloride, zinc, cobalt, nickel, selenium,
silicon, etc. These nutrients also have great roles in plant metabolism, biochemistry,
growth, and development. Some of these previous nutrients (like potassium) play an
important role in enzyme activity and cell expansion, stomatal behavior, and osmo-
regulation. Concerning calcium and magnesium, these nutrients are main cofactors
in plants for more than 300 enzymatic reactions (e.g., energy reactions in metabo-
lism and synthesis of protein and nucleic acid). Regarding other nutrients, copper is
a constituent of proteins involved in electron transfer and oxygen transport, whereas
manganese is the main nutrient for many plant functions such as transporting of
electrons during photosynthesis and forming of riboavin, carotene, and ascorbic
acid. The root development and auxin production can be achieved by zinc (Osman
2013; El-Ramady 2014; El-Ramady etal. 2014a, b; Mitra 2015, 2017; Luo etal.
2016; Secco etal. 2017; Zhang etal. 2017c).
In general, plants uptake their nutrients from soil solution and/or by foliar appli-
cation for the growth, development, and other processes in plants. The bioavailabil-
ity of these soil nutrients is totally controlled by many factors including soil
characterization (e.g., soil pH, salinity, nutrient biogeochemical cycles, and bio-
physicochemical processes) and environmental and climatic changes. Some ele-
ments (like potassium, calcium, iron, copper, and sodium) could enter the
agroecosystems through different soil processes and various human activities such
as the application of fertilizers. These soil processes include soil salinization and
chemical weathering as geochemical processes and biological processes like the
decomposition of soil organic matter. Therefore, the bioavailability of nutrients in
H. El-Ramady et al.
299
arid and semiarid soils is related to drought conditions. This drought could be
accompanied by increases in soil salinity causing the immobilization and precipita-
tion of some elements such as iron, manganese, and zinc. This impact could be
accelerated when soil salinity coincides with increases in soil pH (Maathuis and
Diatloff 2013; Ramezanian 2013; Luo etal. 2015a, b, 2016; Kumar etal. 2016;
Meier etal. 2017).
Soil salinity was and still one of the great threats facing the global food security.
This soil salinity, caused by natural or anthropogenic factors, has been recognized
as a serious challenge in land cultivation worldwide in arid and semiarid regions.
Therefore, soil salinity could be considered an important abiotic stress causing a
remarkable decrease in the crop production under saline soil conditions
(Hasanuzzaman etal. 2013a, b). Concerning damage of salinization, soil saliniza-
tion could lead to the disruption or alteration of the natural biochemical (Decock
etal. 2015), biological (Smith etal. 2015), hydrological (Keesstra etal. 2012), and
erosional (Berendse etal. 2015) Earth cycles. It is well reported that salt-affected
soils constituent nearly 10% of the total global land (about 1 billion ha) including
saline soils (Shahid etal. 2013). Soil salinity is distributed in more than 100 coun-
tries and widespread in all continents on the globe. Furthermore, saline soils are
very common in arid and semiarid or desert and semidesert regions as well as may
occur in different fertile alluvial plains. Thus, salt-affected soils include saline,
sodic, and alkaline soils with high concentration of salt, sodium cation, and CO32−as
well as high pH in soil. Therefore, several studies have been published on the salin-
ity of soils such as monitoring and mapping (e.g., Daliakopoulos et al. 2016;
Guangming etal. 2017), management and reclamation of salt-affected soils (e.g.,
Arora etal. 2017), and use of marginal quality water in crop production (e.g., Shahid
etal. 2013) and different mechanisms for plant salt tolerance (e.g., Almutairi 2016).
There are many commercial calcium products for amending sodic and saline-
sodic soils. Generally, the function of these amendments is to provide soluble cal-
cium and replace exchangeable sodium adsorbed on clay surfaces. The biological
reclamation of salt-affected soils can be applied using organic materials, crop resi-
dues, and biofertilizers (Borde etal. 2017; Choudhary 2017; Singh and Jha 2017;
Singh etal. 2017; Yadav etal. 2017b). These biological reclaimants could help in
improving and maintaining the structure of soil, preventing erosion and supplying
essential plant nutrients, and enhancing the biological activity in soils besides
reclaiming sodic soils. New approaches could be also used in remediation of these
salt-affected soils such as nanoremediation (Belal and El-Ramady 2016; El-Ramady
etal. 2017; Libralato et al. 2017; Lofrano et al. 2017; Martínez-Fernández etal.
2017; Mitra etal. 2017; Saha etal. 2017).
Selenium (Se) and silicon (Si) are benecial elements for higher plants (Swain
and Rout 2017; Pilon-Smits etal. 2017). These elements have been recently used in
alleviating the toxic effects of soil salinity (Habibi 2017; Sattar etal. 2017). Foliar
selenium and silicon in combination or alone improved transpiration rate, water
relations, photosynthetic attributes, chlorophyll contents, and the growth of wheat
seedlings under stressed conditions. The reason of this increase is related to the
accumulation of osmoprotectants (e.g., proline, soluble protein, and soluble sugar)
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
300
and the increase in antioxidant enzyme activity (Sattar etal. 2017). These previous
elements (Se, Si) also have been used in alleviating the oxidative stress of heavy
metals such as cadmium (Cao etal. 2017a; Tang etal. 2015) and lead (Balakhnina
and Nadezhkina 2017; Mroczek-Zdyrska etal. 2017), as well as their nanoparticles
(Alsaeedi etal. 2017a, b).
Salt-affected soils suffer from a lot of troubles around the world such as a limited
crop production due to their abiotic stresses particularly in arid and semiarid regions
(Nan etal. 2016; Zhang etal. 2017a). Therefore, this review will focus on different
roles of plant nutrients under soil saline conditions or salt-affected soils. The phy-
toremediation and management of these soils will be also highlighted.
13.2 Abiotic Stresses andPlants: Problems andChallenges
Generally, plants need some essential and/or benecial nutrients in their growth and
development as well as the proper environmental conditions. These ideal growth
conditions sometimes could not occur, but different plant stresses may be domi-
nated. These plant stresses include biotic and abiotic ones. The major plant abiotic
stresses include high salinity; drought; cold and heat, which negatively impact on
the survival; production of biomass; and yield of staple food crops up to 70% threat-
ening the global food security (Mantri etal. 2012; Alshaal etal. 2017). Concerning
plant stress, Springer has published more than 80 books about this subject including
6 books published during the last months of 2017 (e.g., Khan and Khan 2017; Mosa
etal. 2017; Sarwat etal. 2017; Senthil-Kumar 2017; Sunkar 2017; Wu 2017). These
books include some hotspots concerning plant stress such as using the integrated
omics approaches in plant stress tolerance (Mosa etal. 2017), different new meth-
ods and protocols in plant stress tolerance (Sunkar 2017), the role of arbuscular
mycorrhizas in plant stress tolerance (Wu 2017), the response of plant tolerance to
individual and concurrent stresses (Senthil-Kumar 2017), and signaling of stress in
plants using genomics and proteomics perspective (Sarwat etal. 2017).
The great challenge facing the scientic community is representing in the mul-
tiple or combined biotic and abiotic stresses on plants. That means not only one
plant stress but also in general multiple stresses are facing plants. Plants face differ-
ent environmental constraints (e.g., drought, pathogens, etc.), which do not always
occur independently under eld conditions and extreme weather patterns (Gupta
and Senthil-Kumar 2017). Furthermore, several factors are controlling plant
responses to combinations of stresses like the age of plants, how severe are the
stresses, and the susceptibility of plants to pathogens. The shared plant responses
include the common physiological and molecular levels, whereas the physiological
traits could be dominants in case of individual stresses (Gupta and Senthil-Kumar
2017). The most common combined plant stress includes drought and salinity stress,
which leads generally to a severe reduction in stomatal conductance, net photosyn-
thetic rate, and enhanced oxidative damage (Gupta and Senthil-Kumar 2017). Plant
H. El-Ramady et al.
301
responses to combined drought and pathogen infection (Gupta and Senthil-Kumar
2017) and drought and heat (Yadav etal. 2017a) have been also reported. Recently,
a great concern toward the role and actions of plant nutrients in plant abiotic stress
tolerance also has been issued (e.g., Hasanuzzaman etal. 2017).
Therefore, plant abiotic stresses have many problems and serious challenges. It
is found that many benecial plant nutrients have a distinguished role in the mitiga-
tion and protection of several crop plants against abiotic and biotic stresses such as
silicon (Tripathi etal. 2014; Cao etal. 2017a), selenium (Domokos-Szabolcsy etal.
2017; Habibi 2017), and other essential elements like nitrogen (Khan etal. 2017),
potassium (Ahanger etal. 2017; Kumar etal. 2017c), calcium (Huang etal. 2017;
Nedjimi 2017; Sakhonwasee and Phingkasan 2017), zinc (ul Hassan etal. 2017;
Upadhyaya etal. 2017), etc. Soil microbes (Mishra etal. 2017) or plant biostimu-
lants (Van Oosten etal. 2017) also have a great role in the mitigation and protection
of plants against stresses such as bacteria (Etesami and Beattie 2017; Li and Jiang
2017; Turan etal. 2017), mycorrhizal fungi (Borde etal. 2017; Huang and Wu 2017;
Kumar etal. 2017a; Nath etal. 2017; Zhu etal. 2017), etc.
13.3 Soil Salinity: Problems andChallenges
According to many reports and due to salinity stress, about one-third of the global
irrigated lands nearly is suffering from excess salinity causing a decrease in crop
production every year worldwide (e.g., Tripathi etal. 2014; Naeem etal. 2017a). It
is well known that salinity stress causes restricted plant growth and imbalance in
cellular ions as a result from ion toxicity and osmotic stress. Crop production may
be adversely impacted by salinity-induced nutrient deciencies. Therefore, salinity
stress is one of the major factors limiting the growth of plants and then the produc-
tivity of crops. Several studies have focused on the effects of soil and water salinity
on a variety of crop plants including barley, cucumber, rice, tomato, wheat, etc.
(e.g., Kim etal. 2017; Mohammadi etal. 2017; Shivakumar and Bhaktavatchalu
2017). Other investigations also have included the role of plant nutrients like Si and
Se against different adverse effects of salinity conrming that these nutrients play a
protective role against the salinity stress (e.g., Tripathi etal. 2014; Balakhnina and
Nadezhkina 2017; Cao etal. 2017a; Habibi 2017; Sattar etal. 2017; Swain and Rout
2017; Tang etal. 2015).
Concerning the problems of soil salinity (Figs.13.1, 13.2 and 13.3), these prob-
lems include (1) reduction in agricultural production, (2) low economic returns, (3)
soil erosions, (4) limited water uptake from soils, (5) effects on soil physicochemi-
cal properties, (6) ion toxicity, (7) osmotic stress, (8) deciency of some nutrients
(e.g., N, Ca, K, P, Fe, and Zn), (9) oxidative stress on plants, (10) reduced plant
phosphorus uptake due to precipitation of calcium phosphate ions, and (11) toxic
effects of some elements like sodium, chlorine, and boron on plants (Shrivastava
and Kumar 2015). Concerning the amelioration of soil salinity stress, a holistic
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
302
Fig. 13.1 Effect of soil alkalinity (pH: 8.9) and salinity of irrigation water (2500 ppm) on
Asparagus ofcinalis plant in Wadi El Natrun, Beheira Governorate, where photo (a) represents
salinity features on the leaves but photo (b) belongs salinity features on the shoot (Photos by
Elmahrouk)
Fig. 13.2 Effect of soil alkalinity (pH: 8.7) and salinity of irrigation water (2500ppm) on apricot
plant in Wadi El Natrun, Beheira Governorate, where photos (a) and (b) represent early stage of
salinity effect, (c) die of the terminal shoots, and (d) the end stage of salinity effect (Photos by
Elmahrouk)
H. El-Ramady et al.
303
approach should be applied toward the sustainability of the different soil ameliora-
tion methods. These approaches should have many benets including the following
points (Qadir etal. 2006; Choudhary 2017):
1. Sustainable: it should have a long-lasting, positive impact.
2. Simple: it should be easily manageable by farmers.
3. Efcient: it should be effective in action.
4. Low cost: it should need low capital input and should be inexpensive.
Fig. 13.3 Effect of soil salinity on plants includes many features such as decreased water uptake
efciency; poor root growth; decrease uptake of Ca, Zn, P, and NO3; browning of leaves and death;
closing of stomata and reduced photosynthesis process; and accumulation of nontoxic compatible
solutes
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
304
5. Enhancement of soil fertility: it should increase nutrient availability in soil.
6. Improve rhizosphere: it should improve soil chemical and physical properties.
7. Protect groundwater: it should avoid groundwater quality deterioration.
8. Compatible: it should be suitable for the biophysical environment.
9. Alleviate poverty: it should improve the well-being of the farming
community.
10. Promote yield: it should increase the productivity of crops.
11. Conserve environment: it should improve the environment and sequester
carbon.
12. Replenish soil: it should restore soil and increase the land’s value.
Therefore, soil salinity is a serious global problem facing the arid and semiarid
regions. This problem needs a holistic approach to ameliorate and mitigate it. The
distinguished features resulting from the soil salinity in arid and semiarid zones are
very common. Hence, the new approaches including biological and nanomaterials
should be used in seeking sustainable development. The great challenge facing the
universe is that more than 50% of the arable lands by the year 2050 will be salinized
as reported by Naeem etal. (2017b). So, the researchers should search about uncon-
ventional solutions to overcome and mitigate different risks resulting from this
challenge.
13.4 Role ofPlant Nutrients inAmeliorating Soil Salinity
Stress
Plant nutrients not only give the plants the full power during entire life but also help
plants in ameliorating different stresses including abiotic and biotic. The salinity
stress affects nearly all plant development aspects starting from the germination of
seeds, enzyme activity, vegetative growth, the protein synthesis and mitosis of DNA
and RNA, as well as reproductive development (Horie et al. 2012; Naeem et al.
2017b). Concerning plant salinity tolerance, plants have several multifaceted physi-
ological aspects involving the adaptation to signaling and metabolic networks.
Plants also can use many mineral nutrients (like N, Ca, Si, and Se) in their facing
tolerance mechanisms against different environmental challenges (Khan and Basha
2016; Naeem etal. 2017b).
Concerning effects of soil salinity on the nutrition of plants, nutrient plant distur-
bances reduce the growth of plant through affecting the transport and partitioning of
different nutrients. Soil salinity also may cause deciencies or imbalances in plant
nutrients, due to the competition of Na+ and Cl− with many plant nutrients such as
Ca2+, K+, and N-NO3−. A distinguished reduction in plant growth may occur under
saline conditions due to specic ion toxicities (e.g., Na+ and Cl−) and ionic imbal-
ances (Alshaal etal. 2017; Forni etal. 2017). Furthermore, increased NaCl concen-
tration has been reported to induce increase in Na and Cl as well as decrease in N,
P, Ca, K, and Mg level in many studied plants like medicinal legumes (Naeem etal.
H. El-Ramady et al.
305
2017b) for sustainable crop production under salinity stress (Singh et al. 2017;
Sharma and Singh 2017). Because of these effects, it is vital that Zn, K, P, and N
nutrition are monitored as they may limit plant growth in a saline soil. Therefore,
application method of fertilizers must be chosen carefully to be an efcient way of
combating sodium-induced stress (Negm and Eltarabily 2017; Tei etal. 2017).
Many fertilizers contain soluble salts in high concentrations. Therefore, the
nutrient source, rate, timing, and placement are important considerations in the pro-
duction of all crops. Muriate of potash or KCl, as a common K-fertilizer, is unsuit-
able for saline soil, whereas nitrate can eliminate effects of high chloride
concentrations in soil and water. Salt indices for most commercial fertilizer prod-
ucts have been reported. For example, KCl has a salt index 205 times more that of
K2SO4. Band application of fertilizers with high salt indices generally should be
avoided near seedlings. It could preclude sodium accumulation on the soil’s
exchange complex by applying gypsum as well as maintain soil structure and
improve water inltration (Sharma and Singh 2017). The role of some plant nutri-
ents in ameliorating soil salinity stress such as silicon and selenium as well as their
nanoparticles will be highlighted in the following subsections.
13.4.1 Soil Salinity andSilicon
Silicon is known to be the seocnd element after oxygen in its occurrence in the
Earth ’s crust (28%). It is also a metalloid element, and in compound form it occurs
as SiO2 or silicon dioxide (Swain and Rout 2017). Silicon did not conrm as essen-
tial nutrient for higher plants in spite of a lot of crucial roles in plants (Tables 13.1
and 13.2). It has been demonstrated that the application of silicon is benecial for
plant growth, development, and yield of several plants as well as the alleviation of
different plant stresses including nutrient imbalance (Swain and Rout 2017).
Therefore, the application of silicon under either drought or salt stress has increased
the quality of straw and grain yield as well as biomass, plant growth, and photosyn-
thetic pigments. Silicon also has a vital role in the stimulation of antioxidant
enzymes and gene expression in plants, modication of gas exchange attributes,
regulation of the synthesis of compatible solutes, and osmotic adjustment under
both salt and drought stress. In addition, the application of silicon also decreases
the uptake and translocation of Na+ as well as increases the uptake and transloca-
tion of K+ under salinity stress. However, these previous mechanisms vary with
duration of stress imposed, growth conditions, plant species, genotype, and so on
(Qados 2015; Swain and Rout 2017).
Concerning silicon and soil salinity, a clear role of Si has been documented in
inducing the plant growth under abiotic stresses in particular soil salinity (e.g.,
Balakhnina etal. 2015; Garg and Bhandari 2016). It is indicated that most of the
benecial effects of Si under salinity stress may have resulted from reducing the
uptake and translocation of Na+ and Cl− to shoots and maintaining plant-water rela-
tions, which in turn contributes to salt dilution and then improving yield compo-
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
306
Table 13.1 A comparison between selenium and silicon according to some selected properties of
some physical, chemical, and biological properties
Properties or items (unit) Silicon (Si) Selenium (Se)
Name origin From the Latin word silex
(int)
From Greek word Selênê
(moon)
Discovery year and discoverer J.J. Berzelius (1824) J.Berzelius (1817)
World mine production in
2016 according to USGS
(2017)
7200,000mt 2200mt
Abundance in the Earth’s crust 28% 0.05 (mg kg−1)
Abundance or usual soil
content
54% 0.33 (mg kg−1)
Abundance ranking order in
earth crust
2 69
Most important minerals Kaolinite Al2(OH)4Si2O5Klockmannite (CuSe),
clausthalite (PbSe), tiemannite
(HgSe)
Serpentine Mg3(OH)4Si2O5
Most important sources Quartz, clay, and all silicate
minerals
Rening of lead, copper, nickel
Most important uses Transistors, computer chips,
solar cells, electronics, alloys
Photoelectric cells, TV cameras
Common valence states +2,+4, −4−2, 0, +2,+4, +6
Ionic radius (A°), where 1Å =
100pm
0.21 0.50
Electronegativity (according to
Pauling scale)
1.90 2.55
Atomic number 14 34
Atomic mass (atomic mass
unit)
28.08 78.96
Atomic radius (picometres or
pm)
117 122
Density at 20°C (g cm−3) 2.33 4.79
Boiling point (°C) 3265 684.9
Melting point (°C) 1410 217
Crystal structure Cubic Hexagonal
Principal forms for plant
uptake
H4SiO4 or Si(OH)4SeO42− or SeO32−
Essentiality for animals and
plants
Suggested and benecial Essential for animals and
benecial for plants
Critical or sufcient level in
plant leaf (DW)
<0.5% most species 0.1–2.0 (mg kg−1)
Toxic level in plant leaf (DW) More than 10% in rice 5.0–30 (mg kg−1)
Uptake by plants Passive in mono silicic acid
(H4SiO4) or amorphous silica
Passive (SeO32−) and active for
(SeO42−) and selenomethionine
H. El-Ramady et al.
307
nents (Garg and Bhandari 2016). As reported, saline soils or presence of excessive
amounts of salt could lead to osmotic, oxidative, and ionic stress on plants (Sattar
etal. 2017). Therefore, many features could be occurring under oxidative stress,
including peroxidation of lipids and excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen spe-
cies like hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion that tends to damage proteins,
lipids, and nucleic acids (Soundararajan etal. 2017). Several studies have been pub-
lished to focus on the relation between silicon and its role under soil salinity (e.g.,
Farooq etal. 2015; Garg and Bhandari 2016; Sattar etal. 2017; Soundararajan etal.
2017; Swain and Rout 2017; Zhang etal. 2017b).
Therefore, it could be concluded that many approaches have been used in allevi-
ating the negative effects of salt stress in several crops. Proper plant nutrition is one
of the most important strategies to alleviate this salt stress in crop production.
Mineral nutrient supply to plants also plays a critical role in improving tolerance
potential of plants against various environmental stresses including salinity, drought,
disease, temperature, etc. Reducing uptake of sodium and chloride by plants is the
common mechanism of salt tolerance in plants as well as a distinguished role of
potassium. The role of nitrogen also is very important under soil saline conditions
due to the accumulating of organic N-compounds in plants. These organic
N-compounds include all amino acids in protein and a number of nitrogen-
Table 13.2 The common cited benecial effects of both silicon (Si) and selenium (Se) on plants
under stress
Role of Si and Se
under plant stress
Example for cited references
Silicon (Si) Selenium (Se)
Enhancement of
plant growth and
yield
Swain and Rout (2017) Shahzadi etal. (2017) and
Schiavon etal. (2017)
Resistance to
herbivores and
parasitism
Nikpay etal. (2017) Reynolds etal. (2017) and
Schomburg and Arnér (2017)
Drought stress Rizwan etal. (2015), Ma etal. (2016),
Ouzounidou etal. (2016), Cao etal.
(2017b), and Zhang etal. (2017b)
Nawaz etal. (2015) and
Schiavon etal. (2017)
Salinity and water
stress
Rizwan etal. (2015), Ouzounidou etal.
(2016), Sattar etal. (2017), Xu etal.
(2017), and Zhang etal. (2017b)
Habibi (2017), Sattar etal.
(2017), and Shahzadi etal.
(2017)
Oxidative stress Hasanuzzaman etal. (2017) and Li etal.
(2017)
Balakhnina and Nadezhkina
(2017) and Mechora etal.
(2017)
Plant diseases or
biotic stress
Rodrigues and Datnoff (2015) and
Klotzbucher etal. (2017)
El-Ramady etal. (2016)
Alleviation the
toxicity of lead
Balakhnina and Nadezhkina (2017),
Mroczek-Zdyrska etal. (2017), and Li
etal. (2017)
Balakhnina and Nadezhkina
(2017) and Mroczek-Zdyrska
etal. (2017)
Cadmium Cao etal. (2017a) and Tang etal. (2015) Schiavon etal. (2017)
Improve plant-
nutrient balance
Swain and Rout (2017) Hasanuzzaman etal. (2017)
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
308
containing compounds such as amino acids (proline and glycine betaine), amides,
and polyamines. Thus, exogenous application of N-fertilizers may reduce the effect
of salinity and enhance the growth of plants. Silicon also has the same action in
ameliorating the salt stress.
13.4.2 Soil Salinity andSelenium
No doubt that selenium is an essential micronutrient for many living organisms
including bacteria, some algae, archaea, and animals. However, the essentiality of
Se in the metabolism of plants and fungi still needs more proofs. Selenium in the
form of selenocysteine (SeCys) or selenoproteins is the main essential form required
for the survival of organisms like humans. These selenoproteins have main func-
tions including redox functions, immune function through thyroid metabolism, and
spermatogenesis (El-Ramady etal. 2016; Pilon-Smits etal. 2017). Under high lev-
els of Se, it becomes toxic to living organisms due to the replacement of S-amino
acids in proteins by their Se-analogs causing an oxidative stress. Therefore, the
main problem of Se is represented in the very narrow window between adequacy
and the large variations in dietary Se intake (˂40μg/day) and toxicity (˃400μg/day)
for humans and animals (dos Reis etal. 2017; Dhillon and Bañuelos 2017). Thus,
several symptoms of both Se toxicity and deciency are prevalent worldwide.
Concerning the essentiality of Se for higher plants, it is conrmed that selenium is
a benecial nutrient enhancing plant growth and antioxidant activity (Table13.2).
Higher plants have the ability to uptake selenium using sulfur transporters because
organic Se-compounds are analogous to S.Some plant hyperaccumulators could
accumulate Se in high levels (0.1–1.5% of their dry weight). This reects the great
concern for animal, human, and environmental health (Pilon-Smits etal. 2017).
Several methods are in progress to ameliorate salinity stress such as use of sele-
nium, which is considered as an essential trace element for some microbes, animals,
and humans, but its essentiality for plants is yet to be proved as mentioned before
(Table13.1). At a low level of concentration, Se imparts diverse benecial effects
and stimulates growth as well (e.g., Domokos-Szabolcsy etal. 2017; Habibi 2017;
Kiryushina and Voronina 2017; Schiavon etal. 2017). Previous studies indicate that
the presence of Se in the growth medium can provide partial protection from the
effects of some abiotic stresses such as drought (Hasanuzzaman and Fujita 2011;
Nawaz etal. 2015; Schiavon etal. 2017), salinity (Habibi 2017; Sattar etal. 2017;
Shahzadi etal. 2017), high temperature (Hasanuzzaman etal. 2014a), toxic metals
(Balakhnina and Nadezhkina 2017; Mroczek-Zdyrska etal. 2017), and oxidative
damage (Balakhnina and Nadezhkina 2017; Mechora etal. 2017). Therefore, most
of the benecial effects of Se have been attributed to reduction in oxidative stress by
increasing the activity of antioxidants Balakhnina and Nadezhkina 2017; Mechora
etal. 2017). Previous studies also reported about many protective effects of Se for
plants grown under salt-stressed conditions (e.g., Hasanuzzaman etal. 2017).
H. El-Ramady et al.
309
Therefore, it could be concluded that the distinguished role of Se in ameliorating
the plant environmental stress still needs more elucidation about the specic mecha-
nisms of Se-mediated adaptation to salt stress. Regarding the positive effects of Se
in improving plant tolerance to salt stress, these responses include (1) enhancing
plant growth, (2) increasing the accumulation of photosynthetic pigments and com-
patible solutes, and (3) activating antioxidant machinery. These previous responses
depend on various plant physiological and metabolic changes. These changes, in
turn, start from seed germination to nal crop harvest. Further studies are needed for
more emphasis to conrm the essentiality of Se for higher plants as well as the mode
of action of the ameliorative action of Se in plants under stress.
13.4.3 Nano Selenium andNano-silica Under Soil Salinity
The universe denitely faces several global problems including climate change,
environmental pollution, food security, soil security, energy and water crisis, etc.
These previous challenges represent a serious stress on the global bio-resources.
Environmental pollution, drought, salinity, temperature, and ooding are the most
important abiotic stresses facing the global crop production (El-Ramady et al.
2017). New and modern approaches have been successfully used in the mitigation
and adaptation of these previous stresses particularly the nanotechnology. Several
nanoparticles and nanomaterials have been also applied in agricultural sectors
(Belal and El-Ramady 2016; Shalaby etal. 2016; Saratale etal. 2017) including
almost all elds such as plant nutrition (e.g., Dimkpa etal. 2015; Subramanian etal.
2015; El-Ramady et al. 2017; Jampílek and Kráľová 2017; Subramanian and
Thirunavukkarasu 2017); plant protection and nanopesticides (e.g., Chhipa and
Joshi 2016; Kumar etal. 2017b); nanosensors for food and agriculture (e.g., Singh
2017; Srivastava et al. 2017); soil and water nanoremediation (e.g., El-Ramady
etal. 2017; Sangeetha etal. 2017), against environmental stress (e.g., Wang etal.
2015; Emadi etal. 2016; Mahdy et al. 2017; Mansouri et al. 2017; Rameshraddy
etal. 2017); etc.
There is no any agricultural sector untouched by nanotechnology nowadays. This
penetration of nanotechnology includes the new tools for rapid detection of dis-
eases, molecular treatment of plant diseases, and enhancing the ability of plant to
absorb nutrients. This nanoscience also aims to increase the fertility of soils and
crop production in spite of the potential of nanotechnology is yet to be fully exploited
in management and cultivating of salt-affected soils (Ibrahim etal. 2016; Patra etal.
2016). Concerning the application of nanotechnology under saline soil conditions,
it is in the infant stage and needs more researches and investigations. However,
some studies have been published regarding the role of nanomaterials of silicon and
selenium as well as other metals under salt-affected soils (e.g., Patra etal. 2016;
Alsaeedi etal. 2017a, b; El-Ramady etal. 2015a, b, 2016; Lofrano etal. 2017). So,
the nanotechnology could be used in developing reclaimants more efciently and
readily manufacturable. These nanoparticles including carbon and zeolite nanopar-
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
310
ticles (a polymer carrier), calcium compounds in nanoscale, as well as biochar can
act as exchange sites for binding Na+ and thus reduce the adverse effects like clay
dispersion and swelling (Patra etal. 2016).
Organic forms of selenium and some salts have been used in studying its biologi-
cal effects for years. Elemental selenium (Se0) nanoparticles or selenium nanopar-
ticles (SeNPs) have gained some attention recently as a possible source of this
benecial component (El-Ramady etal. 2015a, b, 2016). It is found that the range
of 5–200nm of selenium nanoparticles plays an important role as a vital size for
nanoparticles. Also, the transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of the separated
Se nanoparticles showed the spherical shape in the range of 80–220nm in size and
the antioxidant properties as reported by Prasad etal. (2013). It is conrmed that Se
nanoparticles have a low toxicity and high biological activity as well as an excellent
bioavailability (El-Ramady etal. 2016). Therefore, SeNPs are gaining importance
in electronics and optics due to their enhanced photoconducting, semiconducting,
catalytic, and photoelectrical properties (Srivastava and Mukhopadhyay 2013). Se
nanoparticles exhibit low cytotoxicity compared with selenium compounds and
possess many medicinal applications as excellent anticancer and therapeutic activi-
ties (Forootanfara etal. 2013; Bhattacharjee etal. 2017). Selenium is essential (as a
cofactor) for many enzymes in animals such as glutathione peroxidases and thiore-
doxin reductase. Thus, these previous enzymes are supplied in meals of animals.
However, some studies have shown that Se nanoparticles have the efciency com-
pared with organic and inorganic selenium compounds (Benko etal. 2012; Hu etal.
2012; El-Ramady etal. 2016).
The biological roles of Se nanoparticles and their biosynthesis in plants have
been involved in several studies (e.g., Domokos-Szabolcsy 2011; Domokos-
Szabolcsy etal. 2012; El-Ramady etal. 2014c, 2015a, b, c, 2016; Srivastava and
Mukhopadhyay 2015; Mykhaylenko and Zolotareva 2017). Furthermore, several
applications of Se nanoparticles have been listed in both biological and nanotechno-
logical elds including (1) new chemopreventives (Zhang etal. 2008), (2) the devel-
opment of safer selenium vitamins and food additives (Hnain etal. 2013), (3) novel
antibiotic coatings (Wang and Webster 2012), (4) anticancer treatments (Kong etal.
2011), and (5) invivo uorescent dyes for bioimaging applications (Gu etal. 2012).
It is worth to mention that there is a great chance for nano-Se and nano-silica use
in fertilization and plant nutrition elds under stress. Many studies have proven that
these nano-fertilizers (nano-Se and nano-silica) play an important role in increasing
the yield of many crops and then food security (Liu etal. 2015; Mastronardi etal.
2015; Wang et al. 2015, 2016; Karimi and Mohsenzadeh 2016; Alsaeedi et al.
2017a, b). The biological and physiological effects of nano-Se on different crops
have been presented such as tobacco (Domokos-Szabolcsy 2011; Domokos-
Szabolcsy etal. 2012), rice (Premarathna etal. 2010), tomato (Haghighi etal. 2014),
and giant reed (Domokos-Szabolcsy etal. 2014). Thus, selenium nanoparticles have
the ability to stimulate the regeneration of roots under higher concentrations (more
than 100mg L−1 nano-Se) with signicant increase in the fresh weight.
Concerning nano-silica, it has a distinguished role in the mitigation of salinity
stress and counteraction of the negative effects of salt on plant growth. It is reported
H. El-Ramady et al.
311
that nano-silicon application can improve the germination of seeds and the growth
of seedlings of some plants like tomato, maize (Suriyaprabha etal. 2012), and com-
mon bean or Phaseolus vulgaris L (Alsaeedi etal. 2017a). Also, the role of nano-
silica in alleviating salt and drought stress of some plants like Glycyrrhiza uralensis
(Zhang etal. 2017b), tomato (Almutairi 2016), and common bean (Alsaeedi etal.
2017b). As mentioned before, silicon depositions in the tissues help to alleviate
water stress by reducing transpiration rate, improve light interception characteris-
tics by keeping the leaf erect, increase resistances to diseases pests and lodging, and
remediate nutrient imbalances, and there are other documented benecial effects
(Zhang etal. 2017b). Nano-silicon also was used to improve salinity tolerance of
sweet pepper plant, where it was estimated that 1.0g of silica nanoparticles having
size of 7.0nm diameter exhibit wide absorption surface equal to 400m2. Furthermore,
silica nanoparticles also exhibit its effect on xylem humidity and water translocation
and enhance turgor pressure; thus, leaf relative water content and water use ef-
ciency will be increased in plants. Siddiqui and Al-Whaibi (2014) conrmed that
the application of nano-SiO2 has many benets under stress including reducing the
rate of chlorophyll degradation and increasing stomatal conductance, the net photo-
synthetic rate, transpiration rate, and water use efciency. Nano-SiO2 particles are
absorbed better and faster than micro-SiO2, Na2SiO3, and H4SiO4 when applied on
root of maize and seeds; because of fast absorption of nanoparticles, they can be
immediately utilized by plants to fulll their growth needs (Suriyaprabha etal.
2012). The effect of nano-silicon application on the expression of salt-tolerant genes
in germinating tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) seedlings under salt stress is also
studied, where four salt stress genes, AREB, TAS14, NCED3, and CRK1, were
upregulated by nano-Si under salt stress and six genes, RBOH1, APX2, MAPK2,
ERF5, MAPK3, and DDF2, were downregulated. These results suggest that nano-Si
has the ability in moderating inhibition in the germination of seeds and the growth
of plants under saline environments (Almutairi 2016).
Therefore, it could be concluded that both nano-selenium and nano-silicon have
distinguished roles in alleviating the detrimental effects of Na+-derived salinity on
germination and growth of many crops. These ndings generally could be rein-
forced by low Na content which was measured in plant tissues after treating seed-
lings with 300 mg L−1 or 100 mg kg−1 of nano-silicon and nano-selenium for
common bean and most crops, respectively.
13.5 Phytoremediation ofSoil Pollution UnderSaline
Conditions
It is well known that several human activities have led to environmental humungous
load of pollutants day by day. These pollutants already have created imbalance in
the environmental equilibrium (El-Ramady etal. 2015a, b; Bauddh etal. 2017;
Chakravarty et al. 2017). Therefore, several approaches or mechanisms of
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
312
remediation have been used in remediation of soil and water. These approaches
include physicochemical (excavation, landlling, thermal treatment, leaching, and
electro- reclamation) and biological remediation including bio- and phytoremedia-
tion (Anjum etal. 2017a, b; Purakayastha etal. 2017). Comparing with traditional
techniques, phytoremediation (using plants in clean up polluted soil and water)
could be considered more cost-effective and environmentally benecial pathways in
restoration of polluted sites (Bauddh etal. 2017). Many mechanisms have been suc-
cessfully adapted in phytoremediation including phytodegradation, phytoextrac-
tion, rhizoltration, phytostabilization, and phytovolatilization of contaminants in
the polluted sites (e.g., Anjum etal. 2017c; Dhillon and Bañuelos 2017; Purakayastha
etal. 2017; Srivastava 2017; Sarkar 2018b). Several botanical species have been
used in remediating the contaminated sites and this is conrmed by many research-
ers. Many crop plants including medicinal plants, bioenergy crops, trees, and weeds
already have been found to be the best options for phytoremediation (Bauddh etal.
2017; Chakravarty etal. 2017). Some important hyperaccumulator plants (1000mg
kg−1) used for phytoextraction of some heavy metals in soils as reported by
Purakayastha etal. (2017) are listed in Table13.3.
It is known that salt-affected soils could be dened as soils with high levels of
dissolved salts (EC more than 4dS m−1) and/or high concentrations of exchange-
able or adsorbed sodium ions (SAR and ESP less than 13 and 15, respectively) in
the soil matrix. These soils suffer from soil salinity and sodicity, causing losses in
crop yields in many regions worldwide especially in arid and semiarid zones
(Hasanuzzaman et al. 2014b; Purakayastha et al. 2017). Amelioration of salt-
affected soils could be performed using soil chemical amendments like gypsum
and other applications of organic fertilizers (e.g., compost, manure, and green
manure crops) and halophytes (Purakayastha etal. 2017). An increased concern
about phytoremediation of saline soil conditions or salt-affected soils as a hotspot
has been recorded nowadays. So, several investigations have been published
regarding phytoremediation of salt-affected soils (e.g., Arora and Rao 2017;
Arora etal. 2017; Bharti etal. 2017; Gerhardt et al. 2017; Purakayastha etal.
2017; Yadav etal. 2017b).
The most important new approaches used in phytoremediation include nanoma-
terials and nonfood bioenergy crops. So, several books recently have been published
Table 13.3 Some common
plant species have the ability
to phyto-remediate some
pollutants
Contaminant Plant species
Arsenic Pteris vittata L.
Cadmium Oryza sativa L.
Chromium Brassica juncea L.
Copper Elsholtzia splendens
Lead Chenopodium album L.
Mercury Marrubium vulgare
Nickel Alyssum lesbiacum
Selenium Brassica rapa L.
H. El-Ramady et al.
313
by Springer regarding the phyto- and bioremediation (e.g., Anjum etal. 2017a, b;
Ansari etal. 2017; Arora etal. 2017; Bauddh etal. 2017; Kalia and Kumar 2017;
Mehnaz 2017; Prashanthi etal. 2017; Sarkar 2018a). Therefore, phytoremediation
is an economical and effective method of reducing or removing pollutants in salt-
affected soils. So, halophytes could be used as a cost-effective and environmentally
sound green technology in phytoremediation of salt-affected soils (i.e., saline and
sodic soils). Furthermore, it could be used salt-tolerant plant (e.g., grass and biofuel
species) in multipurposes under alkaline soil conditions such as in bio-amelioration
of degraded agricultural and wastelands (Singh etal. 2016). Under gas and oil min-
ing conditions, a huge number of halophytic grasses have been proven to be effec-
tive in revegetating brine-contaminated soils (Arora and Rao 2017).
Concerning the halophytes (salt-loving, salt-tolerant, or saltwater plants), it
could be dened as tolerant plants that grow in high salt concentrations, which kill
99% of other species or adapted plants that grow well in high salinity conditions
(Arora and Rao 2017; Purakayastha etal. 2017). In other words, halophytes could
be dened generally as rooted seed-bearing plants (i.e., succulents, grasses, shrubs,
herbs, and trees), which grow in a wide variety of salt marshes and mudats to
inland deserts, saline habitats from coastal sand dunes, salt ats, and steppes.
Halophytes could be also divided based on their occurrence into hydro-halophytes
(plants are growing in saline water medium) and xero-halophytes, which grow
mainly in dry land saline conditions (Arora and Rao 2017). Some halophytes under
environments are listed as follows as reported by Arora and Rao (2017):
1. Halophytes of oil-yielding species: Salicornia bigelovii, Salvadora persica, S.
oleiodes, Terminalia catappa, and Calophyllum inophyllum
2. Coastal halophyte plants: Borassus abellifer, Calophyllum inophyllum,
Pongamia pinnata, and Nypa fruticans
3. Petro-crops: Jatropha curcas and Euphorbia antisyphilitica
4. Medicinal plants: Plantago ovata, Adhatoda vasica, Withania somnifera, and
Cassia angustifolia
5. Food-yielding halophytes: Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), date palm (Phoenix
dactylifera), guava (Psidium guajava), Java plum (Syzygium cumini), and pome-
granate (Punica granatum)
6. Nitrogen-xing halophytes: Albizia, Cassia, Cyamopsis, Leucaena, Pongamia,
Sesbania, and Trifolium
Therefore, phytoremediation of soil pollution under saline conditions is an
important green technology that could be used in reclamation of polluted and salt-
affected soils. This phytoremediation process depends on phytoremediator plants,
fertilization of soil, and kind of soil amendments (chelating agents) under saline soil
conditions. It could be concluded that several economic and useful halophytes have
the effective capacity in bio-amelioration of salt-affected soils. These plants also
have a great capability in removing substantial quantities of salts and producing
higher biomass, thereby improving these soils.
13 Plant Nutrients andTheir Roles Under Saline Soil Conditions
314
13.6 Conclusion
Plant nutrients including essential and benecial play several crucial roles in meta-
bolic, molecular, physiological, ecological, and evolutionary aspects as well as
regulatory processes in plants. These plant nutrients have a pronounced impact on
entire plant life including plant growth and its development as well as the regulatory
role of mineral nutrients under stresses. These plant nutrients should be applied for
plant nutrition in a proper or right amount, time, form, and dose (or known as 4R
nutrient stewardship: right fertilizer source, right rate, right time, and right place).
An ameliorative effect of plant nutrients has been recorded on the plant growth and
productivity under different abiotic and biotic stresses. These plant stresses are the
main limiting factors of crop yields causing losses of billions of dollars annually all
over the world. Several plant nutrients have proven and conrmed their roles in
ameliorating stress such as nitrogen, potassium, sulfur, selenium, and silicon.
Different plant cellular, physiological, and molecular strategies already have been
used under unfavorable or stress conditions. Under saline soil conditions, various
plant responses have been recorded in plant adaptation to this stress such as osmotic
regulation, hormone metabolism, controlling ion uptake, transport and balance,
antioxidant metabolism, and stress signaling. Therefore, further studies are needed
for more understanding and to emphasize about the plant response to stress condi-
tions and its adaptation to different changing environments at the molecular level.
The study of intracellular and intercellular molecular interaction involving the
response of these plants toward soil salinity stress is also an urgent issue.
Acknowledgment Authors thank the outstanding contribution of STDF research teams (Science
and Technology Development Fund, Egypt) and MBMF/DLR (the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany) (Project ID 5310) for their help. Great support
from this German-Egyptian Research Fund (GERF) is gratefully acknowledged.
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