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Globally, soil salinization is becoming increasingly prevalent, due to local hydrogeologic phenomena, climate change and anthropogenic activities. This has significantly curtailed current world food production and limits future production potential. In the prairie region of North America, sulfate salts, rather than sodium chloride, are often the predominant cause of soil degradation. In order to amend soil quality, revegetate salt-affected sites and recover economic loss associated with soil salinization, the establishment of short-rotation coppice plantations with willows (Salix spp.) has been suggested as a possible solution. To screen for the best candidates for such an application, 20 hybrid and 16 native willow genotypes were treated with three different salt conditions for 3 months. The treatments were designed to reflect the salt composition and concentrations on North American prairies. Under moderate salinity treatment (7 dS m−1), hybrid willows had better growth, as they established quickly while managing salt transport and mineral nutrition balance. However, native willows showed higher potential for long-term survival under severe salinity treatment (14 dS m−1), showing a lower sodium:potassium ratio in roots and better photosynthetic performance. Two native willow genotypes with high osmotic and salinity tolerance indices, specifically LAR-10 and MJW-9, are expected to show superior potential for remediating salt-affected sites. In addition, we observed significantly higher sulfate/sulfur concentrations in both leaf and root tissues in response to the severe salinity treatment, shedding light on the effect of sulfate salinity on sulfate uptake, and potentially sulfur metabolism in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) is an evergreen groundcover plant native to North America. Nowadays cranberries are successfully cultivated in Latvia with total plantings of more than 125 ha. Being a native wetland plant, cranberries are considered as nutrients low requiring crop, however, balanced mineral nutrition is one of the key factors that determine plant growth and yield development. Surveys were carried out to determine the actual status and trends in mineral nutrition of American cranberries in Latvia during 2005-2016. Together 190 plant samples were collected from different cranberry producing sites in Latvia over 3 periods: 2005-2007, 2008-2011 and 2012-2016. Cranberry tissue analyses were used as diagnostics method to control plant nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo, B) status. The obtained results revealed notable nutrient imbalance in the years of the study. In general, our results suggest that only about 50% of plant tissue nutrient indices were in the sufficient range. Deficiency of N P, S, Fe, Cu, and Mo, and high levels of Mn was found in the majority of samples analyzed. In general, diverse tendencies were stated for the nutrient supply of cranberries from 2005 to 2016: positive trend in nutrient status of cranberry crop were found for N, K, Ca, while mean concentrations of S, Fe and Mo, as well as frequency of optimal indices decreased. The small count of nutrient indices in high till toxic range suggested on environmentally sound way of cranberry fertilization practices in Latvia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]