The effects of water salinity on Myzus persicae and Arabidopsis thaliana
Keywords:
Salinity, A. thaliana, M. persicae, soil, road salt, de-icingAbstract
Road salt is often used during the winter months as a cheap and efficient way to melt snow. However, it also poses some serious environmental issues. Runoff containing road salt can lead to soil salinization and impact plant health. This can have detrimental effects on not only the organisms that feed on these plants, but the ecosystems they partake in. The purpose of this experiment was to study how salinity affects plants and the herbivores that feed on them. Wild type Arabidopsis thaliana plants and Myzus persicae (green peach aphid) were the model organisms used in the experiment. It was hypothesized that watering the plants with different concentrations of saline solutions would affect the health and growth of the plants as well as the M. persicae populations. Wild type A. thaliana plants were inoculated with M. persicae and watered with either regular tap water, a 20 mM saline solution, or a 60 mM saline solution. Leaf surface area and aphid population was recorded for each plant over the course of the experiment and analyzed to determine the effect of salinated water on A. thaliana and M. persicae. The saline treatments did not have a significant effect on the aphid population growth, but did significantly affect the plant surface area change. There was no significant difference between the control and the high salt treatments or the control and low salt treatments. However, statistical significance was found between the low and high salt treatments, suggesting that salt did have some effect on plant fitness. The lack of effect on the aphids could be due to two main reasons. Firstly, the plant may have allocated its resources towards survival rather than defence against the aphids. Secondly, the aphid’s preferred habitat may not have been affected by the saline solution. Since the aphids do not appear to be affected by salinization, plants will have to face the double burden of salt stress and herbivory.
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