Abstract:
Objective Green manure is used as a biological fertilizer. How to improve plant utilization efficiency of green manure and nitrogen (N) conversion efficiency after adding soil has always been a hot research topic. The fresh alfalfa (Medicago sativa) was used as green manure and inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and dark septate endophytes (DSE), to improve plant utilization efficiency of green manure and promote N transformation.
Methods Under greenhouse conditions, corn (Zea mays L.) was used as the test plant, fresh alfalfa (Medicago sativa) was used as green manure inoculated with AMF and DSE. The experiment included 4 treatments: green manure (L); green manure + AMF (L + A); green manure + DSE (L + D); green manure + DSE + AMF (L + D + A).
Results AMF and DSE could simultaneously colonize maize plants. Both the inoculation fungus treatments significantly increased the plant height and dry weight of maize, and the L + D treatment had the best effect, with the plant height and biomass values of 86.25 cm and 41.893 g per pot, respectively. Compared with other inoculation treatments, L + D treatment had the most significant promoting effect on plant total N and green manure utilization efficiency, and the maximum values were 585.27 mg and 76.50%, respectively. And the soil nitrate N, ammonium N and urease activity were the highest under L + D treatment. Soil total N inoculated with AMF was significantly higher than that in the non-inoculated AMF treatment. Simultaneous inoculation of AMF and DSE has little inhibited on maize growth.
Conclusion L + D treatment is slightly better than L + A treatment in terms of plant biomass and nutrient utilization, while double inoculation treatment needs further research to prove the synergistic or competitive relationship. It provides a theoretical basis for improving the N utilization efficiency and promoting the N transformation in soil.