Effective microorganisms impact on photosynthetic activity of Arabidopsis plant grown under salinity stress conditions

Abstract Effective microorganisms impact on photosynthetic activity of Arabidopsis plant grown under salinity stress conditions. Salinity is one of the main abiotic stressors which affects plant growth through various physiological processes such as photosynthesis. The aim of this work is to study the impact of salinity stress on Arabidopsis plants by evaluating plant growth rate and photosynthetic activity, while investigating the influence of effective microorganisms (EMs) with the objective to determine if EMs could alleviate the induced stress affiliated with salinity. Results showed that salinity negatively affects photosynthesis efficiency in Arabidopsis plants based on the data obtained from the measured chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Additionally, application of EMs enhanced plant tolerance to counteract the induced stress. Effective microorganisms concentration of 10 mL/L suggested to bring about the best results. This work advocates, that quantum efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) is a reliable indicator for tolerance in Arabidopsis plants to salinity stress, the impact of which may be softened by the EMs.