The Effect of Humic Acid Application on Drought Tolerance of Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus)

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 4, 1181 - 1190, 26.12.2025

Serkan Yıldız , Alpaslan Kusvuran , Şebnem Kuşvuran

https://doi.org/10.31015/2025.4.20

Abstract

Drought is one of the most critical environmental factors limiting plant growth, development, and productivity. This study was conducted to evaluate the drought tolerance effects of humic acid (HA) under different irrigation regimes (100% irrigation (C, control), 75% (D1), 50% (D2), 25% (D3), and 0% irrigation (D4)) in Miscanthus × giganteus. The experiment was carried out in plastic pots under greenhouse conditions for 58 days. Reduced irrigation levels negatively affected plant growth to varying degrees, with declines ranging from 3% to 86% compared with the control in parameters such as plant height, stem diameter, leaf width, leaf number and area, and fresh and dry weights of leaves, stems, and roots. Application of HA improved plant resistance to drought, reducing growth losses to 7–45% relative to the control and providing an average improvement of 8–34% compared with plants without HA treatment. Similarly, physiological traits, including leaf relative water content (RWC), leaf water potential (LWP), membrane injury index (MII), and chlorophyll content, were reduced by 1–278% under limited irrigation compared with the control. HA treatments had positive effects on these physiological parameters, leading to an average reduction of 9–61% compared to the control group and an average improvement of 11–33% compared to untreated plants. Overall, the findings demonstrate that humic acid effectively enhances drought tolerance in Miscanthus by alleviating the adverse effects of water deficit stress.

Keywords

Abiotic stress , Biomass , Energy , Grass , Organic materials

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