Kent Orven C. Gabayeron (March 2009)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
One of the economic problem today is crop production because most of the soils today are very saline making it hard for some crop plants to grow and finding a place with the right salinity is very hard. Many studies about at what salinity will a specific plant species will grow best but there are few studies on what plants will grow best at a specific salinity.
Some plants have adaptive mechanisms to soil salinity which are called halophytes and this study aims to determine what plants best grow at a specific salinity. By determining the plants that grows best, we will be able to recommend those plants for further studies.
The study area with a length of 125m and a width of 50m composing 55 sampling sites was chosen. The soil salinity at each sampling site was determined using a refractometer measured three times and the mean of the three values was used. The plants were identified using an online web based plant taxonomy.
The results showed that the plant species Dalupang (Urena lobata), makahiya (Momosa pudica) and palagtiki (Eleusine indica) seems to exist at all salinity levels and because of that, those plant species can be recommended for further economic potentials. The salinity value of 1.39%S seems to be the site which almost all the plant species exist and with the most number of plant exists. We can then conclude that the salinity value 1.39%S could be the salinity most suitable to grow herbs and shrubs.