This year marks the 20th anniversary of the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium, held in Porto, Portugal, from July 22 to 25. The main theme was “Cultivating Resilience: Plant Nutrition for Food, Feed, and Health.” The colloquium brought together 418 participants from 42 countries around the world. The Institute of Applied Plant Nutrition (IAPN) was represented by Klaus Dittert, Azin Pakbaznia, and Johanna Marie Lass.
From left: Marcel Naumann (Division of Plant Nutrition, Georg-August-University-Göttingen), Azin Pakbaznia, Klaus Dittert, Johanna Marie Lass (IAPN) and Hubertus Blanke (Division of Plant Nutrition, Georg-August-University-Göttingen) in front of the river Douro in Porto at the location of the IPNC conference..
Azin Pakbaznia, a doctoral candidate at the IAPN, presented her research as a poster titled "Point of Deliquescence and Point of Efflorescence of Different Foliar Applied Salts and Their Role in Nutrient Uptake." Her work focuses on how various salts and salt mixtures influence foliar nutrient uptake in relation to their points of deliquescence (POD) and point of efflorescence (POE). The study highlighted that naturally fluctuating humidity across the critical humidity range of these substances has a pronounced effect on nutrient uptake. However, the results showed that leaf surface properties significantly influence salt crystal formation/morphology, and the relative humidity thresholds for these processes.
Azin Pakbaznia in front of her poster about her research on POD and POE.
Johanna Marie Lass shared her research on the “Physiological effects of foliar-applied magnesium salts on stomata regulation in magnesium-deficient faba beans” by a poster presentation at the conference. Her poster was awarded the first poster prize. In her work, Johanna studied how spraying magnesium salts with different companion anions onto the leaves of faba beans affects stomata regulation. Furthermore, she investigated the effect of magnesium salts on the apoplastic pH using the fluorescent dye Oregon-Green. While the stomata did not react to the salt application, the apoplastic pH was alkalized much more pronouncedly using MgCl2 and Mg(NO3)2 compared to MgSO4. The next step is the non-destructive fluid washing of the ions out of the leaf apoplast to clarify if the effects are due to different foliar uptake or due to different uptake of ions into the symplast.
Johanna Marie Lass in front of her poster at the IPNC colloquium.
The second picture shows from left to right Jóska Gerendás (K+S Group), Klaus Dittert, Johanna Marie Lass (IAPN) and Ismail Cakmak (Sabanci University) after Johanna received her prize.