Soil Salinity is a Serious Environmental Threat to Plant Diseases- A review

Abstract

The rise in sea level, which causes an increase in salinity in both surface and ground water systems, is among the resultant effects of global climate change. Soil salinity is one of the notable environmental factors contributing to infectious plant diseases. Stress due to soil salinity affects plant tolerance to biotic stress by attenuating their immunity to pathogens leading to prevention of defence genes expression, reduced antioxidant activity and weakening of defence signalling proteins. The pathogen virulence and pathogenicity as well as an enhancement of pathogen development and multiplication are all influenced by soil salinity. Restriction of water absorption, toxic ion build up in plant tissues, nutrient deficiency, hormonal and metabolic imbalance, oxidative stress as physiological effects of salt stress, significantly affect the degree and occurrence of plant diseases. Thus, level of soil salinity is directly proportional to the severity and incidence of plant diseases. Controlling the effect of salinity by improving salinity tolerance in plants and deployment of salinity control measures will provide a long lasting solution on its effect on plant diseases. This will also serve as an approach to plant economic disease control.

Synergic Effects of Salinity and Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn) Infection on Growth and Yield Attributes of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

“…Salinity stress exerts a deleterious and adverse effects on critical physiological processes in rice plants, including but not limited to photosynthesis, nutrient absorption, water relations and hormonal regulation, thereby exacerbating the detrimental impact (Abu-Ria et al, 2023). Numerous studies have provided valuable contributions towards understanding the effects of salinity on rice plants, elucidating the reduction in various growth indices, presence of Na + at toxic levels, decrease in K + as well as K + /Na + ratio, malondialdehyde buildup, electrolyte leakage in addition to alterations of osmolytes content and antioxidant defense system (Abu-Ria et al, 2023;Al-hashimi, 2023;Chakrobortty et al, 2022;Mustapha et al, 2022b;Muthuramalingam et al, 2022).…”

“…However, Salinity can alter plant-pathogen interactions, affecting plant health (Bidalia et al, 2019). Salt stress also causes physiological effects on plants, such as restriction of water absorption, nutrient deficiency and oxidative stress, which significantly affect the occurrence of plant disease (Mustapha et al, 2022b).…”