Open Access
ARTICLE
Assessment of Salinity Tolerance and Ecotypic Variability in Vicia narbonensis L.: Morphological, Physiological, and Biochemical Responses
1 Centre de Recherche en Aménagement du Territoire (CRAT), Campus Zouaghi Slimane, Constantine, 25000, Algérie
2 Laboratoire d’Amélioration et de Développement de la Production Végétale et Animale (LADPVA), Université de Ferhat Abbas, Sétif, 19000, Algérie
3 Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
4 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
5 Centre de Recherche en Agropastoralisme (CRAPast), Djelfa, 17000, Algérie
* Corresponding Author: Salah Hadjout. 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 2025, 94(1), 251-267. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.060096
Received 23 October 2024; Accepted 26 December 2024; Issue published 24 January 2025
Abstract
Salinity stress is a major challenge for global agriculture, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, limiting plant productivity due to water and soil salinity. These conditions particularly affect countries along the southern Mediterranean rim, including Algeria, which primarily focuses on pastoral and forage practices. This study investigates salinity tolerance and ecotypic variability in Vicia narbonensis L., a fodder legume species recognized for its potential to reclaim marginal soils. Morphological, physiological, and biochemical responses were assessed in three ecotypes (eco2, eco9, and eco10) exposed to different salinity levels (low, moderate, and severe). The study was conducted using a completely randomized block design with three blocks per ecotype per dose. The results from the two-way analysis of variance demonstrate significant effects across nearly all attributes studied, revealing distinct ecotypic responses. These findings underscore variations in growth parameters, osmotic regulation mechanisms, and biochemical adjustments. The substantial diversity observed among these ecotypes in their response to salinity provides valuable insights for breeders addressing both agronomic and ecological challenges. Multivariate analyses, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), revealed key variables distinguishing between ecotypes under salinity stress. Moreover, Classification based on Salinity Tolerance Indices (STI) further differentiated ecotypic performance with more precision, and this is because of the combination of the different parameters studied. These results open up new prospects for the development of strategies to improve the salinity tolerance of forage legumes.Keywords
Cite This Article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.