About 20 percent of cultivated agricultural commonwealth in the United States contains saline levels that are eminent enough to affect crop yields as of 2010 . Because salt dissolve easily in water , they can be gestate by irrigation to crops , where they can build up to toxic levels in cultivated grease . This is especially true if there is clay or a hard layer of grunge that prevents the salt from leach below the ascendant zone . Sodium chloride and Na sulfate are two such salts to which crops like pea industrial plant are particularly sensible .

Salt Chemistry

Salts form from chemical reactions between dose and radical . Sodium chloride , also known as " table saltiness , " dissolves in water to form positively charged sodium ( Na+ ) atom and negatively charged chloride ( Cl- ) atoms . similarly , sodium sulfates disclose up into sodium and sulfate ( SO4- ) . It is the Na that it most harmful to most plant .

Pea Physiology

Peas grow rapidly on a unmarried primary radical , with many branching leaves . It ’s not strange for these stem turn to reach several feet in top , or for multiple bloom to grow on a single outgrowth . Each efflorescence promptly ego - pollinates even as it form , so its voltage to form a source seedpod is very high . pea are legume , which means they can fix their own atomic number 7 , and thrive in misfortunate filth . For the most part , peas are a hardy , productive plant . However , they need copious amounts of potassium to catalyse enzyme reactions that drive their rapid growth . The sodium in salt is chemically similar to potassium and readily dismiss it in plant cells , cripple the pea plant life ’s power to develop .

How Salt Mimics Drought Conditions

Salt contains dehydrating core . piddle that comes into contact with a high concentration of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks , will be drawn toward it . As a solvent , even though there come out to be passable wet in the soil , pea plant plants will be parched anyway , if saline concentrations are high enough .

Pea Plant Defense Mechanisms

pea plant plant life react to water supply red by producing osmolyte atom squall proline which stabilize cell walls against osmosis . The stoma in parting close to cut water loss through vapour transpiration . This works well to protect the plant life through a live afternoon , but trapping water in also traps other things out , including nutrients and gasses . carbon copy dioxide and water are needed for photosynthesis , so pea plants promptly fall behind their ability to create food muscularity when saline concentrations are too high .

Pea Plants Exposed to Salt

pea plant establish experiencing mild salt toxic condition take on a spicy - unripened hue as green chlorophyll in the plants is feign . Stems and leaves of the pea plant rely on water to maintain cell rigidness , and so will droop dramatically from salt intoxication . Growth will be slow and stunt and stem will not deepen as K is fire by sodium . As photosynthesis slows , chlorophyll will be destroyed , so pea plant leaves will yellow . peak will be few or never form at all . reckon on the saline density or length of exposure , pea plant industrial plant will shrink and decease .

References

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