Foliar potassium nitrate application improves the tolerance of Citrus macrophylla L. seedlings to drought conditions.

Scarcity of water is a severe limitation in citrus tree productivity. There are few studies that consider how to manage nitrogen (N) nutrition in crops suffering water deficit. A pot experiment under controlled-environment chambers was conducted to explore if additional N supply via foliar application could improve the drought tolerance of Citrus macrophylla L. seedlings under dry conditions. Two-month-old seedlings were subjected to a completely random design with two water treatments (drought stress and 100% water/field capacity). Plants under drought stress (DS) received three different N supplies via foliar application (DS: 0, DS + NH4NO3: 2% NH4NO3, DS + KNO3: 2% KNO3). KNO3-spraying increased leaf and stem DW as compared with DS + NH4NO3 and DS treatments. Leaf water potential (Ψw) was decreased by drought stress in all the treatments. However, in plants from DS + NH4NO and DS + KNO3, this was due to a decrease in the leaf osmotic potential, whereas the decrease in those from the DS treatment was due to a decrease in the leaf turgor potential. These responses were correlated with the leaf proline and K concentrations. DS + KNO3-treated plants had a higher leaf proline and K concentration than DS-treated plants. In terms of leaf gas exchange parameters, it was observed that net assimilation of CO2 [Formula: see text] was decreased by drought stress, but this reduction was much lower in DS + KNO3-treated plants. Thus, when all results are taken into account, it can be concluded that a 2% foliar-KNO3 application can enhance the tolerance of citrus plants to water stress by increasing the osmotic adjustment process.

Self-assembly of tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide in glycerol aqueous mixtures: A thermodynamic and structural study.

In this paper, we have studied the effect of glycerol on the micelle formation of tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide. Changes in both the critical micelle concentration and the degree of counterion binding of the surfactant upon the addition of glycerol across a temperature range (20-40 degrees C) were examined by using the conductance method. The equilibrium model of micelle formation was applied to obtain the thermodynamic parameters of micellization. An enthalpy-entropy compensation effect was observed in all the solvent systems, but whereas the micellization of the surfactant in the medium with 20% glycerol occurs under the same structural conditions as in pure water, in glycerol rich mixtures the results suggest that the lower aggregation in these media is due to the minor cohesive energy of the solvent system in relation to water. It was also observed that the micellar aggregation number, as obtained by the static quenching method, decreases with the glycerol content. This fact was attributed to an increase in the surface area per headgroup of the surfactant as a consequence of an enhanced solvation, probably induced by the incorporation of some glycerol molecules in the micellar solvation layer. Although the pyrene 1:3 ratio index does not indicate significant changes in the micropolarity at the micelle-bulk interface, the data of fluorescence anisotropy of coumarin 6 and fluorescein are compatible with the formation of a more compact solvation layer.