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Does ambient salinity in SUNY Oswego winter runoff impact Brassica rapa growth?
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Hellquist, C. Eric
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2025
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Quest2025_011.pdf
Adobe PDF, 861.27 KB
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Road salt runoff can be detrimental to flora growth, hindering normative physiological and biochemical processes within plants. We utilized water samples that approximated the typical salinity levels found in SUNY Oswego runoff to test Brassica rapa germination and growth responses by measuring plant height, leaf count, and cot count within 6 weeks. The conditions we set were 11 ppt (road salts), 2 ppt (sidewalk salts) and 0 ppt (grass / control salt levels); through our weekly sampling methods we noticed 11 ppt salinity caused withering within our plants, 2 ppt salinity reduced biomass growth, while control (0 ppt) plants thrived in non-saline induced conditions. Which confirmed our original hypothesis that high salinity stress negatively impacts Brassica rapa overall growth when exposed to increasing saline conditions found on SUNY Oswego’s campus.