Electronic Journal of Biology

The Effect of Drought Stress on Water Relations, Chlorophyll Content and Leaf Area in Canola Cultivars (Brassica napus L.)

This study was conducted to identify suitable irrigation regime and determination of the best canola cultivar to cultivation in dry and semi-dry regions, at the Agricultuaral Research Station of Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch in North-East of Isfahan. This experiment was performed as split-plot at the layout randomized complete block design with three replications during 2009-2010. The experimented factors included three levels of irrigation, viz; irrigation after 50, 100 and 150 mm evaporation from class A pan as the main plots and four canola cultivars entitled: Zarfam, Elite, SLM 046 and Okapi as sub-plots. In this experiment, chlorophyll content, Relative Water Content (RWC), Water Saturation Defficient (WSD), Leaf Water Content per unit leaf Area (LWCA) and Specific Leaf Area (SLA) were measured. The results showed that the non-significant effect of irrigation period on chlorophyll content, LWCA, RWC, WSD and SLA. According to the results obtained in this experiment, the most chlorophyll content were obtained by 150 mm irrigation and the most RWC were obtained by 50 mm irrigation. The cultivar effect on WSD and RWC was significant at 1% probability level so Elite and Zarafam had the most RWC and WSD. Overall, Elite was recognized as the most drought tolerant canola cultivars for suggest to farmers.

Author(s): Aref Sepehri, Ahmad Reza Golparvar

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