Physiological and Anatomical Implications of Salinity on Rice as a Semi-Aquatic Species

Rice is a well-established salt-sensitive cereal crop and is the second most widely grown and consumed food crop worldwide. It is also a semi-aquatic cereal crop. The rice plant has many adaptations for surviving the aquatic environment, which include the development of specialised roots called adventitious roots, increase in aerenchymal area, increase in the number of roots, reduction of laterals, stunted growth, thickening of the apoplastic barrier in the roots and induction of the 'radial oxygen loss (ROL) barrier'. How these adaptations respond to salinity is a question that has been least explored, and is addressed in this book.A number of interesting findings on the response of the plant to salinity under stagnant deoxygenated conditions (waterlogged conditions for performing laboratory level studies were established using hydroponics) were compared to the normal way of growing rice plants using hydroponics (fully aerated solutions). The purpose of this study is to give a precise representation of the response of rice plants to salt stress under its natural environment.