LU’LUATUL KHOIRIYYAH ULIMAT ULFATURROHMAH, EDI PURWANTO* AND SUPRIYONO
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Central Java, 57126, Indonesia
*(e-mail: edipurwanto@staff.uns.ac.id; Mobile: +62812 2605284)
(Received: September 9, 2024; Accepted: October 23, 2024)
ABSTRACT
Climate change may exacerbate salinity in agricultural land, which in turn threatens food security. The application of exogenous antioxidants is an approach to increase plant resilience under salinity stress. This study was conducted to study the effect of the concentration of exogenous ascorbic acid (0, 400, 600 and 800 ppm) on physiological parameters and soybean crop yields exposed to salinity stress (0, 50 and 100 mM). Salinity significantly decreased photosynthetic pigment content, leaf relative water content, K+ ions in roots, K+/Na+ ratio, total number of pods, number of filled pods and total seed weight. However, exogenous ascorbic acid had the potential to increase the physiological characters in soybean, specifically increasing leaf water content and reducing accumulation of toxic ions in plants.
Key words: Salinity, osmotic stress, ascorbic acid, osmoregulation, soybean