Impact of Different Strains of Cyanobacteria on Rice Crop Growth and Nutrients Uptake under Saline Soil Condition
Impact of Different Strains of Cyanobacteria on Rice Crop Growth and Nutrients Uptake under Saline Soil Condition
Zakirullah Jan1, Shamsher Ali1*, Tariq Sultan2, Muhammad Jamal Khan1, Zahir Shah1 and Farmanullah Khan1
ABSTRACT
Saline soils have complex agro-ecosystems, difficult to manage. In early stages, the salinity affects the germination and emergence of the young seedlings and then the growth and yield of various crops and ultimately disturbing the socioeconomics of the farming community. Among the microbes, cyanobacteria are known as photoautotrophic, blue green algae which is not a truly eukaryotic algae and grown in different and such complex habitats freely and symbiotic association with large numbers of plants and microbial mats. In this regard, a pot experiment was carried out with the aim to assess the impact of different strains of cyanobacteria on rice crop growth and nutrients uptake under saline soil condition at National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), Islamabad Pakistan during summer 2016. A total of 18 experimental pots were induced with salinity of 7.0 dS m-1 and arranged in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Six treatments consisted of a control (no strains) and 5 different strains of cyanobacteria i.e Oscillatory-MMF-1 (Oscillatoria princeps), Leptolyngbaya-MMF-2 (Lyngbya mucicola), Leptolyngbaya-MMF-3 (Lyngbya Phormidium), Gloeobacter-MMF-4 (Gloeocapsa) and Microcoleus-MMF-5 (Cryophilus) were applied randomly to flooded rice in pots. Five seedlings of rice (Kianat cv.) were transplanted to each pot on 18th of July 2016. The growth of rice crop was maintained for about 3 months and 12 days and shoots harvested on October 30, 2016. The data were recorded on agronomic parameters and rice shoots and roots tissue analysis for various nutrients uptake/concentration. The data revealed that all strains of cyanobacteria had significantly (p < 0.05) improved the nutrients up-take/concentration and agronomic traits of rice crop as compared to control. Among the strains, the Gloeobacter strain (MMF-4) surpassed by augmenting all agronomic parameters of rice crop like plant height (85 cm), plant fresh weight (45 g), dry weight (24.5 g) and root dry weight (2.80 g) followed by MMF-5 treatment. As regard shoot tissue analysis, the nutrients concentration was significantly changed in plant. The highest concentration of N (3.62 %), P (0.77 %), K+ (2.68 %), Ca++ (0.60 %), Mg (0.44 %) and Na+ (2.49 %) was found in the shoot of rice crop grown in saline condition of 7.0 dS m-1 treated with Gloeobacter strain as compared to other strains. As per roots tissue analysis, all the strains significantly (p <0.05) increased the mean of nutrient concentration in root. The highest amount of N (3.37 %), P (0.86 %), K+ (2.89 %), Ca++ (0.47 %) and Mg++ (0.35 %) was recorded in saline soil treated with MMF-4 strain as compared to control. It was concluded that all the strains of cyanobacteria improved the saline soil and agronomic parameters of rice crop but MMF-4 (Gloeobacter) and MMF-5 (Microcoleus) surpassed the aforementioned and recommended for rice crop in the ecosystems of saline soils
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