Mycorrhizal contribution to water economy in agriculture under hot and dry climate: The case study of water melon in Algeria
BIOSCIENCE RESEARCH(2019)
Abstract
Climatic warming and drought affect watermelon yields in Algeria, an important and water-demanding crop. This study aimed to test arbuscular mycorhizal (AM) fungi as an alternative to manage water deficit on watermelon culture. We experiment a watering regime gradient of 100%, 50%, 25 % and 5% of soil field capacity (FC) on mycorhized and non-mycorhized seedlings in greenhouse. The results showed that limited water irrigation reduced mycorrhizal colonization by 50.01% at the severe water stress (5%FC). However, the mycorrhizal dependency of watermelon plants to AM fungi increased with increasing water deficit and improved significantly growth parameter, among them flowering and root/shoot ratio, wich are indicators of a good yields. Thanks to AM fungi, shoot biomass of inoculated plants watering with only (5%FC) was similar to those obtain with non-mycorrhized plants more irrigated at 50%FC and higher than irrigated at 25%FC. Roots biomass of mycorrhized plant under water stress of 50%FC and 25%FC was similar to those obtained with the irrigation of 100% FC for the controls. Mycorrhizal inoculation can be used as a sustainable solution to manage the water resources, improve drought tolerance and growth of watermelon culture in areas with limited water availability.
MoreTranslated text
Key words
AM Inoculum,mycorrhizal colonization,mycorrhizal dependence,watermelon (Citrullus lanatus),water stress,growth
AI Read Science
Must-Reading Tree
Example
![](https://originalfileserver.aminer.cn/sys/aminer/pubs/mrt_preview.jpeg)
Generate MRT to find the research sequence of this paper
Chat Paper
Summary is being generated by the instructions you defined