Salt stress tolerance in native Alberta populations of slender wheatgrass and alpine bluegrass

Alpine bluegrass [Poa alpina L.] and slender wheatgrass [Elymus trachycaulus (Link.) Gould ex Shinners] accessions from alpine and subalpine regions of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and eastern foothills were tested for tolerance to salinity stress. Accessions with higher emergence (%) than salt-tolerant Orbit tall wheatgrass [Thinopyrum elongatum (Host) D. R. Dewey, comb, nov.], after 21 d in vermiculite saturated with a NaCl-salinized half-Hoagland solution (electrical conductivity 15 dS m−1) and nurtured in growth cabinets set to repeat 20/15 °C day (16-h)/night temperatures, were considered tolerant of salt-stress. This test identified 72 alpine bluegrass and 11 slender wheatgrass salt-tolerant accessions. Most of these accessions originated from two specific sites near the Alberta-British Columbia border. Slender wheatgrass accessions tolerant to NaCl were also tolerant to the other salts commonly found in Alberta soils. In slender wheatgrass, the ability to emerge in a salinized nutrient solution had moderate heritability (61–68%), suggesting the possibility of genetic improvement through selection.Key words: Salt tolerance, selection, heritability, alpine bluegrass, slender wheatgrass