Study of effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza (Glomus intraradices) fungus on wheat under nickel stress

A. Heydarian¹, H.R. Tohidi Moghadam¹, T.W. Donath² and M. Sohrabi²*

¹Islamic Azad University Varamin- Pishva Branch, Department of Agronomy, IR 33817-74895, Varamin, Iran
²Kiel University, Department of Landscape Ecology, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Olshausenstr. 75, DE24118 Kiel, Germany
*Correspondence: msohrabi@ecology.uni-kiel.de

Abstract:

In many regions of the world soils are contaminated with heavy metals and therefore restricted in their use. For instance, the absorption of nickel (Ni) in the tissue of plants increase the plant’s metabolism and cause physiological disorders or even death. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are known to enhance the tolerance of host plants to abiotic and biotic stress. Thus, we investigated the potential of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus intraradices to mitigate deleterious effects of Ni in wheat. The experiment was conducted using four levels of Ni (0, 60, 120 and 180 mg per kg of soil) and two levels of mycorrhizal fungi application (with and without Glomus intraradices). Nickel stress significantly decreased seed number per spike, thousand-seed weight, seed yield per plant, concentration of chlorophyll a and b. At the same time, we found increased catalase (CAT) enzyme activity and dityrosine (DT) treatments. Mycorrhizal fungi application attenuated Ni effects, i.e. fungal presence increased seed number per spike, thousand-seed weight, chlorophyll a and b. Furthermore mycorrhizal fungi application reduce CAT enzyme activity and DT. In general, our results suggest that mycorrhizal fungi application reduces harmful effects of Ni stress in wheat.

Key words:

Metal content in soil fertilized with brown coal fly ash

M. Gibczyńska¹, E. Meller², S. Stankowski³ and Cz. Wołoszyk⁴

¹ General Chemistry Department, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin,ul Słowackiego 17, Poland; e-mail: margi@px.pl
² Department of Soil Science, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin, ul Słowackiego 17,Poland; e-mail: Edward.Meller@agro.ar.szczecin.pl
³ Soil, Plant Cultivation and Biometry Department, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin,ul Słowackiego 17, Poland; e-mail: mail sstankowski@hoga.pl
⁴ Department of Environmental Chemistry, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin,ul Słowackiego 17, Poland; e-mail: woloszyk@agro.ar.szczecin.pl

Abstract:

The aim of the studies was evaluation of brown coal ash produced by Power Plant Group Pątnów-Adamów-Konin for agricultural purposes. The subject matter was the estimation of the influence of fly ash applied to light soil on the metal content of soils (aluminium, iron, manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt). The field experiment was conducted on light soil at the area of the Agricultural Experimental Station in Lipnik, Poland. The experiment was set up by means of randomized complete blocks in 4 replications. The study consisted of testing 7 variants (controlburned lime (CaO) dolomite lime CaCO3⋅MgCO3, ash from 1st electrofilterzone, from 2nd electrofilter zone, from 3rd electrofilter zone and mixture of ashes from three electrofilter zones). Lime fertilizers and ashes were applied in a dose corresponding to 1.0 hydrolytic soil acidity expressed in cmol H+ kg-1 of soil. Brown coal fly ash produced by Power Plants ZE PAK S.A., used as soil fertilizer, did not contribute to changes of content of the following metals: iron, zinc, copper, nickel, lead and cobalt in the tested soil. Soil-incorporated brown coal fly ash significantly increased the content of manganese. However, the obtained results did not exceed the allowable standard. In the soil of all fertilizer variants, where brown coal ash was applied, the content of mobile aluminium diminished. When brown coal ash produced by Power Plants ZE PAK S.A. was applied in the experiment, soil reaction changed from acid to neutral and its hydrolytic acidity decreased by ca 50%.

Key words:

aluminium, brown coal ash, cobalt, cupper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, soil, zinc