evaluation of tolerance to salinity based on root and shoot growth of 11 drought tolerant and sensitive chickpea genotypes at hydroponics conditions

salinity is a major environmental problem in arid and semi-arid areas. chickpea (cicer arietinum l.), like other legumes is sensitive to salinity. therefore, selection of genotypes to grow on saline areas is important. eleven chickpea genotypes (as sub plots) were grown in the greenhouse conditions on a medium containing different nacl concentrations (8 and 12 dsm-1) and control (hoagland solution) as main plots. the results showed that salinity reduced membrane stability index, green leaf area, the percentage of shoot and root dry matter, plant height, number of branch and root to shoot dry weight, significantly and increased leaf relative water content in all genotypes. membrane stability index (0.61 and 0.73) and green leaf area to total leaf area ratio (0.68 and 0.56) in genotypes showed a positive correlation with shoot and root dry matter, respectively. biplot on resistance index based on dry matter production showed that amomg drought tolerant genotypes, mcc696, mcc544 and mcc877 are least and mcc760 is the highest salt tolerant genotypes. in this study, except mcc873, other drought sensitive genotypes were categorized in the salt tolerant group. therefore, it seems that drought tolerant genotypes are not necessarily salt tolerant. generally, in order to achieve the drought and salinity tolerant chickpea varieties, the genotypes for both traits should be selected.