Effects of salt stress on seed germination and seedling physiological of Zelkova schneideriana.

Seeds germination and seedling growth of Zelova schneideriana were investigated under six levels of salinity stress e.g.0,0.1%,0.2%,0.4%,0.6%,and 0.8%,respectively.The results showed that salinity restraint affected the seeds germination and seedling growth of Zelova schneideriana significantly.The germination rates was the highest under non-saline conditions.Germination capacity,germination and vitality indexes decreased with the increasing of NaCl concentration.The effects of 0.1% NaCl on the shoot and root length were not significant,while significantly decreased under the NaCl concentration over 0.1%.SOD and POD activities showed a significant increase under low concentration of NaCl while the contents of MDA were decreased at first and increased subsequently.The results may be helpful to understand the response mechanism of seeds germination and seedling growth of woody plant to salt stress.