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ARTICLE

Mitigation of Detrimental Effects of Salinity on Sweet Pepper through Biochar-Based Fertilizers Derived from Date Palm Wastes

Adil Mihoub1,*, Mohammed Mesnoua1, Nabil Touzout2, Reguia Zeguerrou1, Nourelislm Siabdallah1, Chawqi Benchikh1, Saliha Benaoune1, Aftab Jamal3, Domenico Ronga4, Jakub Černý5,*
1 Centre for Scientific and Technical Research on Arid Regions, BP 1682 RP, Biskra, 07000, Algeria
2 Department of Nature and Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Pole Urban Ouzera, University of Medea, Medea, 26000, Algeria
3 Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Crop Production Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, 25130, Pakistan
4 Pharmacy Department, University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II 132, Fisciano (SA), 84084, Italy
5 Department of Silviculture, Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Na Olivě 550, Opočno, 517 73, Czech Republic
* Corresponding Author: Adil Mihoub. Email: email; Jakub Černý. Email: email
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants: Physio-biochemical and Molecular Mechanisms)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2024.057536

Received 20 August 2024; Accepted 21 October 2024; Published online 19 November 2024

Abstract

Globally, salinity is a brutal environmental constraint that poses a major threat to agriculture worldwide, causing nutrient imbalances and oxidative stress, leading to reduced crop yields and quality. Date palm waste from the agro-industry is a major environmental problem, but its conversion to biochar for soil amendment could help alleviate the effects of salinity stress. Pepper is a commonly grown horticultural crop that is sensitive to salinity. That’s why the current experiment was conducted with the novel idea of exploring the potential use of biochar-based fertilizer derived from date palm waste as a mitigation strategy for salinity-related problems in pepper. The study was conducted as a pot experiment in a growth chamber under controlled conditions. The experiment consisted of four treatment groups: Control (no salinity stress); BM350E (biochar application only); NaCl (salinity stress without biochar application); BM350E+NaCl (combined biochar and salinity stress application). The soil was amended with biochar at a concentration of 3 g kg−1 soil and pepper seedlings were exposed to salinity stress with 150 mM NaCl for seven days. The morphological, biochemical, and physiological responses were then evaluated. The use of BM350E biochar significantly improved plant growth under saline conditions, increasing shoot fresh weight by 9.41%, root fresh weight by 15.32%, shoot length by 5.22%, and root length by 12.57%. It also increased chlorophyll a (Chl. a) by 8.28%, chlorophyll b (Chl. b) by 80.20%, and carotenoids (Car) by 52.43% while increasing antioxidant enzyme activities. In conclusion, BM350E biochar has the potential to effectively mitigate the negative effects of salinity on pepper growth.

Keywords

Resource cycling agriculture; lignocellulosic by-products; biochar; pepper; salt stress; antioxidants; secondary metabolites

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