Evaluation of aluminum tolerance of three barley cultivars by two short-term screening methods and field experiments

Productivity of cereal crops growing in acid soils of Southern Chile have adversely being affected by acidification and aluminum phytotoxicity. For overcoming such constraints, farmers need to apply heavy amounts of lime and/or use AI-tolerant plants especially with AI-sensitive crops, as barley is. The objectives of this study were to determine the degree of Al tolerance of . three barley cultivars commonly grown in volcanic soils by using two shortterm screening methods and to relate their rankings with field experiments. Additionally, the amounts of citric and malic acids exuded from roots were determined for studying the mechanism involved in Al tolerance. Relative root length (RRL) was the criterion used to evaluate Al tolerance both in nutrient solution and in soil-based culture and yield for field experiments. Results showed a close relationship between the RRL values obtained with the three barley cultivars by applying the two short-term screening methods. Barley yields obtained in field experiments carried out in two soils differing in Al contents agreed well with the ranking observed in the laboratory suggesting that the short-term screening methods could be a useful tool for knowing Al tolerance of cereals habitually cropped in our acidic volcanic soils. Citric and malic acids were detected mainly in the exudates from the most AI-tolerant barley which could indicate a chelation mechanism implied in such a tolerance.