In order to evaluate morphological and physiological traits related to drought tolerance and to determine the best criteria for screening and identification of drought-tolerant genotypes, we grew two tolerant genotypes (MCC392, MCC877) and two sensitive genotypes (MCC68, MCC448) of chickpea under drought stress (25% field capacity) and control (100% field capacity) conditions and assessed the effect of drought stress on growth, water relations, photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and chlorophyll content in the seedling, early flowering and podding stages. Drought stress significantly decreased shoot dry weight, CO2 assimilation rate (A), transpiration rate (E), and Psii photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) in all genotypes. In the seedling and podding stages, Psii photochemical efficiency was higher in tolerant genotypes than in sensitive genotypes under drought stress. Water use efficiency (WUE) and CO2 assimilation rate were also higher in tolerant than in sensitive genotypes in all investigated stages under drought stress. Our results indicated that water use efficiency, A and Fv/Fm can be useful markers in studies of tolerance to drought stress and in screening adapted cultivars of chickpea under drought stress.

The research was conducted in Tartous Governorate during the two agricultural seasons (2018–2019 and 2019–2020) under control conditions, the aim of the research is to study the relationship between the productivity of five promising strains of bread wheat (‘ACSAD 1256’, ‘Douma 58847’, ‘Douma 58585’, ‘Douma 64453’, ‘ACSAD 1149’) and two cultivars (‘Douma 2’ and ‘Douma 4’) and some quantitative indicators of drought: stress tolerance index ( STI), mean of productivity ( MP), modified stress tolerance index ( MSTI), and relative yield ( RY).
Cultivation was carried out in pots filled with light sandy silty soil, and three treatments of 70, 50, and 30% of the field capacity were applied in addition to the control and with three replications for each treatment.
The strains ‘Douma 58585’ and ‘Douma 58847’ gave high yield values for grain in the two agricultural seasons. It was also found that there were significant differences between the two seasons in yield between the control and drought stress factors and drought tolerance indicators, such as stress tolerance index, modified stress tolerance index ( MSTI), mean of productivity ( MP), and relative yield ( RY).
On the other hand, a positive and strong relationship was found between STI, MSTI, and MP in both treatments and both seasons. The research concluded that the best indicators, which were related to the productivity, whether in the control or transactions and in the two growing seasons together, are STI and MP, which are promising indicators in the classification of stress-tolerant cultivars or strains.