Evaluating traits contributing to salinity tolerance

Salinity stress impacts myriad aspects of a plant’s function, with potentially catastrophic results for crop yield. As an alternative to studying overall salinity tolerance according to physiological effects, Negrão et al. recommend a trait-based approach to identifying salinity-induced plant responses.

In this Viewpoint, the authors present methods and support methodologies to test for and quantify the impact of salinity on individual traits, such as ion exclusion, maintenance of water relations, transpiration rate and efficiency, ionic relations, photosynthesis, senescence, and maintenance of growth and yield components.