Abstract: Influence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizae on Biomass Production and Nitrogen Fixation of Berseem Clover Plants Subjected to Water Stress

JSergio Saia, Gaetano Amato, Alfonso Salvatore Frenda, Dario Giambalvo, Paolo Ruisi Published: March 03, 2014

Abstract

Several studies, performed mainly in pots, have shown that arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis can mitigate the negative effects of water stress on plant growth. No information is available about the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis on berseem clover growth and nitrogen (N) fixation under conditions of water shortage. A field experiment was conducted in a hilly area of inner Sicily, Italy, to determine whether symbiosis with AM fungi can mitigate the detrimental effects of drought stress (which in the Mediterranean often occurs during the late period of the growing season) on forage yield and symbiotic N2 fixation of berseem clover. Soil was either left under water stress (i.e., rain-fed conditions) or the crop was well-watered. Mycorrhization treatments consisted of inoculation of berseem clover seeds with arbuscular mycorrhizal spores or suppression of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis by means of fungicide treatments. Nitrogen biological fixation was assessed using the 15N-isotope dilution technique. Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis was able to mitigate the negative effect of water stress on berseem clover grown in a typical semiarid Mediterranean environment. In fact, under water stress conditions, arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis resulted in increases in total biomass, N content, and N fixation, whereas no effect of crop mycorrhization was observed in the well-watered treatment.

Mungbean as experimental plant was investigated by means of sand culture containing three levels of water to determine the influence of VA mycorrhiza on the host plant growth and its water use. The experimental results showed that inoculating with VA mycorrhiza was beneficial not only to uptake of phosphorus by plant, but also to promoting plant growth. The amount of water used by mungbean inoculated with mycorrhiza to produce one gram of dry matter was as low as half of that by controlled plant. It was implied that the efficiency of water used by the host plant inoculated with mycorrhiza was increased by 100%. 

In this paper, the growth and development of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants in three different water levels of sand culture were described. The water consumed by plant growth in the whole growing period was measured and the experimental results were analysed and discussed.

Honggang W, Guanyi W, Huiquan L (1989) Effects of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza on the growth of mungbean and its water use. Acta Pedol Sinica 26:393–400. 

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