Halophytes and Glycophytes - A Review Research Paper

Halophytes and Glycophytes - A Review - Research Paper Example The proteome profile of germinating seeds reveals that salinity probably inhibited the degradation of seed storage proteins leading to the slower germination rate. Maximum delay in the germination process was observed during 0-72 hours as illustrated in Fig 02. However, at the vegetative stage, C. maritime plants exposed to moderate salinity (0-100 mM NaCl) have depicted enhanced growth with expansion in leaves and elevated photosynthetic activity in saline conditions showing a typical halophytic trait (Debez et al., 2012) as illustrated in Fig. 03. Aquaculture provides with a significant proportion of seafood for human consumption and is regarded as one of the key sustainable means to meet the rising food demand. However, the highly saline wastewater discharged from marine and coastal farms has adverse implications for environmental sustainability. The halophyte plant species have tremendous potential to treat the discharged wastewater in constructed wetlands on one hand and produce valuable crops on the other. The cultivation of saltmarsh plant, Salicornia europaea, on submerged-subsurface constructed wetland filter beds yielded significant reduction of phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients from a farm wastewater when evaluated over a period of 88 days.  A schematic diagram of nutrient removal is illustrated in Fig 04. The total dissolved inorganic nitrogen (TDIN) was removed up to 98.2  Ã‚ ±Ã‚  2.2%. The removal of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) was comparatively less and amounted to 23-69%. The total dissolved inorganic p hosphorus (TDIP) was reduced by 36–89%. The correlation between TDIN daily load and TDIN removal from S. Europaea is illustrated in Fig. 05. The S. Europea halophyte can thus be used as an efficient and cost-effective way to treat saline wastewater for nitrogen and phosphorus contents in marine aquaculture (Webb  et al., 2012).