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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Ecophysiology
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1523229
Halophyte Adaptations in Gray Mangrove Seedlings to Salinity on the Persian Gulf Coastline
Provisionally accepted
Maryam Moslehi 1*
Mehrdad Zarafshar 2* Akram Ahmadi 1
Tom Grant Pypker 3 Mohsen Dehghani Ghanatghestani 4 Majid Hassani 1- 1 Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Alborz, Iran
- 2 Faculty of Technology, Department of forestry and wood technology, Linnaeus university, Växjö, Sweden
- 3 Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
- 4 Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Bandar-Abbas, Hormozgan, Iran
This study aims to explore the salt tolerance mechanisms of Avicennia marina from the Persian Gulf, addressing the gap in understanding whether mangroves are facultative or obligatory halophytes. Seedlings were exposed to freshwater (control), low salinity (25% seawater), medium salinity (50% seawater), and high salinity (100% seawater) treatments for six months. The results revealed that medium salinity promoted optimal growth, with the highest values for plant height, root and shoot biomass, leaf area, and seedling vigor (2.86%). The non-salinity treatment showed lower vigor (1.96%) and greater leaf loss (17.96%). Medium salinity increased nitrogen and potassium levels, while high salinity elevated chloride and sodium content. Photosynthetic pigments were higher in moderate and low salinity treatments, and catalase activity peaked in freshwater, with peroxidase activity highest in both freshwater and high salinity treatments. These findings provide evidence that A. marina from the Persian Gulf is a facultative halophyte, capable of thriving in both saline and non-saline conditions, with salinity enhancing its growth and health.
Keywords: Data curation, Funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, resources, supervision, Validation, Writing -original draft. Akram Ahmadi: Writing -original draft. Mohsen Dehghani Ghanatghestani: Writing -original draft. Majid Hassani: Writing -original draft. Tom Grant Pypker: Writing -review & editing. Mehrdad Zarafshar: Formal Analysis
Received: 05 Nov 2024; Accepted: 19 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Moslehi, Zarafshar, Ahmadi, Pypker, Dehghani Ghanatghestani and Hassani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Maryam Moslehi, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Alborz, Iran
Mehrdad Zarafshar, Faculty of Technology, Department of forestry and wood technology, Linnaeus university, Växjö, Sweden
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