Abstract:

The quality of soils represents the totality of soil characteristics that give it a certain degree of natural fertility and can influence the manifestations of other environmental factors towards plants, such as climatic, technological, hydrological factors. Any disturbance of its quality can lead to fertility damage, and its modification deregulates all the physicochemical, biological and biochemical functions taking place in the soil, and implicitly affecting crop plants for which soil is the support and source of nutrients. Salinity is one of the most widespread soil degradation processes, which jeopardizes the proper use of agricultural land. Globally, the total area of ​​soil affected by high salinity is about one billion hectares, with affected areas estimated to be around 1 million hectares in Europe. Romania also has significant areas affected by the salty strips caused by the unrealistic exploitation of some soils and, on the other hand, by irrigation with water with soluble salts, which produces secondary salinisation. In Brăila county, the farming land affected by salinity covers an area of approximately 60,000 ha, being concentrated mainly in the meadows of the main rivers and around the salty lakes in the county. This paper forwards an analysis of the lands affected by salinity in the Northern Bărăgan Plain, in Romania, as well as its influence on the germination of corn seeds. To this end, a series of surveys were conducted to study seed germination for 3 corn hybrids, namely Losc, DKC3568 and Olt. The studies were carried out under controlled laboratory conditions, and the germinations of the three hybrids under different saline conditions (5%, 10%, 15% sodium chloride) were evaluated. Research has shown that the Olt hybrid resists best at high salinity concentrations. The results obtained are interesting and useful and can open up new research perspectives in this field.