Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 2018; 3(3): 20-26 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/eeb doi: 10.11648/j.eeb.20180303.11 ISSN: 2575-3789 (Print); ISSN: 2575-3762 (Online) Effect of Irrigation with Brackish Water on the Morpho-Biochemical Behavior of Olea Europaea Gharabi Dhia 1, * , Benchaben Hellal 2 , Abdelkrim Hassani 1 1 Laboratory of Agro Biotechnology and Nutrition in Dry Areas, Ibn Khaldoun University, Tiaret, Algeria 2 Laboratory of Geomatics and Sustainable Development, Ibn Khaldoun University, Tiaret, Algeria Email address: * Corresponding author To cite this article: Gharabi Dhia, Benchaben Hellal, Abdelkrim Hassani. Effect of Irrigation with Brackish Water on the Morpho-Biochemical Behavior of Olea Europaea. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2018, pp. 20-26. doi: 10.11648/j.eeb.20180303.11 Received: October 30, 2018; Accepted: November 26, 2018; Published: December 24, 2018 Abstract: The objective of this work is to determine the morpho-biochemical behavior of olive (2 years old) plants stemming from herbaceous cuttings and grafted on an oleaster, with two varieties of Spanish origin (Manzanilla and Arbiquina) and two varieties of Algerian origin (Sigoise and Chemlal) under the effect of irrigation with salin water at 100 mM-l-1 NaCl. The experimentation takes place in the Faculty of Science of Nature and Life - Tiaret Ibn Khaldoun - University - Algeria, under a semi-automatic greenhouse and under well controlled conditions. The control plants are irrigated with a nutrient solution, while the plant stress received nutrient solution enriched by sodium chlorure in four repetitions 100 mM / l NaCl. The analysis focused on the measurement of leaf area, soluble sugar and proline content. According to the results obtained, the leaf area of the treated plants slightly decreased compared to that of the control plants. However, the 20 weeks of brackish irrigation resulted in proline and sugars accumulation in the stressed genotype compared to the control genotype. In addition, this accumulation is very important for the leaves of plants local origin (Algerian) compared to introduced plants (Spanish) and in the leaves of plants grafted on oleaster compared to plants from herbaceous cuttings. Keywords: Olive Trees, Herbaceous Cuttings, Grafted, Salt Stress, Proline, Sugars and Leaf Area 1. Introduction The olive tree "Olea europaea L. ssp europaea" is a symbolic and distribute tree in the Mediterranean flora for thousands of years in the wild (sylvestris var.) or cultivated (europaea variety). It is renowned for its great hardiness, allowing it to develope and grow under conditions of sub-climate and sometimes very poor soil. It perfectly supports drought [1]. Indeed, the development of olive growing in the Mediterranean and Algeria has been the subject of a vast development program focusing on quantity and quality. However, sanility of soil and irrigation water compromises the cultivation of olive trees in some areas [2, 3]. This sanility is mainly anthropogenic (excessive use of chemical inputs and repeated irrigation with brackish water without dryning) [4, 5]. It is to be noted that in the ecosystem, marked by severe and frequent droughts, salinization of soils is one of the main factors limiting the development of plants. About 15 million hectares of agricultural land are subject to increasing sanility [6]. The aim of this work is to determine the effect of salinity on the morphological and biochemical behavior of the leaves of four genotypes of olives. They are obtained from herbaceous cuttings and grafted on the oyster, including two genotypes of Algerian origin (Chemlal and Sigoise) and two Spanish origins. (Manzanilla and Arbiquina). They are irrigated with brackish water at 100 mM NaCl. The study parameters are the measurement of the height of the leaves, the quantification of proline and the soluble sugars of the four genotypes. 2. Material and Methods The experiment is carried out at Ibn-Khaldoun University in Tiaret, Algeria, under a greenhouse in a controlled environment with a daytime temperature of 18ºC and a nighttime temperature of 10ºC, a relative humidity of 70% and a photoperiod of 10-12 h; on 2-year-old olive trees placed in pots of 40 centimeters in diameter and 50