The growth of the wild-type and three salt tolerant mutants of barnyard grass (Echinochloa crusgalli L.) under salt stress was investigated in relation to oxidative stress and activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD: EC 1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT: EC 1.11.1.6), phenol peroxidase (POD: EC 1.11.1.7), glutathione reductase (GR: EC 1.8.1.7) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX: EC 1.11.1.1). The three mutants (fows B17, B19 and B21) grew significantly better than the wild-type under salt stress (200 mM NaCl) but some salt sensitive individuals were still detectable in the populations of the mutants though in smaller numbers compared with the wild-type. The salt sensitive plants had slower growth rates, higher rates of lipid peroxidation and higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in their leaves compared with the more tolerant plants from the same genotype. These sensitivity responses were maximized when the plants were grown under high light intensity suggesting that the chloroplast could be a main source of ROS under salt stress. However, the salt sensitivity did not correlate with reduced K(+)/Na(+) ratios or enhanced Na(+) uptake indicating that the sensitivity responses may be mainly because of accumulation of ROS rather than ion toxicity. SOD activities did not correlate to salt tolerance. Salt stress resulted in up to 10-fold increase in CAT activity in the sensitive plants but lower activities were found in the tolerant ones. In contrast, the activities of POD, APX and GR were down regulated in the sensitive plants compared with the tolerant ones. A correlation between plant growth, accumulation of ROS and differential modulation of antioxidant enzymes is discussed. We conclude that loss of activities of POD, APX and GR causes loss of fine regulation of ROS levels and hence the plants experience oxidative stress although they have high CAT activities.

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SUMMARYThe bank and open water vegetation along El-Salam Canal in north-eastern Egypt were studied in relation to the prevailing environmental factors. The hypothesis that terresterial and aquatic species would show different downstream patterns of species richness was tested by sampling species composition and environmental variables along 80 km of the canal. Species richness was highest in the ®rst 30 km of the canal. The downstream decrease in species richness exhibits interpretable downstream patterns. Total species richness increased with increasing organic matter in the soil and decreased with both increasing soil and water salinity along the gradient.The indicator species of TWINSPAN analysis are: Azolla ®liculoides, Echinochloa stagnina, Eichhornia crassipes and Saccharum spontaneum (cluster I); Ceratophyllum demersum, Ludwigia stolonifera and Typha domingensis (cluster II); Potamogeton pectinatus and Phragmites australis (cluster III); Tamarix nilotica and Suaeda vera (cluster IV).The environmental factors in¯uencing the vegetation clusters were analysed using canonical correspondence analysis ordination (CCA). The water salinity, total nitrogen and total phosphorus appeared to be the most important factors controlling the abundance of aquatic plant distribution along the canal. The shoreline vegetation is mainly controlled by salinity, K and organic carbon of the soil. Water analysis indicated that the salinity of the water increases southwards and the minimum salinity of the water (0.78 mS/cm) was recorded at the intake of the canal. The maximum value (7.5 mS/cm) of water salinity was recorded near the Suez Canal.