Effects of Water Stress, Organic Amendment and Mycorrhizal Inoculation on Soil Microbial Community Structure and Activity During the Establishment of Two Heavy Metal-Tolerant Native Plant Species

• Published in: Microbial ecology Vol. 63; no. 4; pp. 794 - 803
• Main Authors: Fernández, D. A., Roldán, A., Azcón, R., Carayaca, F., Bååth, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer Science + Business Media 01.05.2012; Springer-Verlag; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acid soils; Apiaceae - drug effects; Apiaceae - growth & development; Apiaceae - microbiology; Articulata; Beta vulgaris - chemistry; Biologi; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Colonization; Community composition; Community structure; Cupressaceae - drug effects; Cupressaceae - growth & development; Cupressaceae - microbiology; Dehydration; Drought; Droughts; Ecology; ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY; Fatty acids; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fungi; Geoecology/Natural Processes; Glomeromycota - growth & development; Glomus mosseae; Heavy metals; Indigenous plants; Indigenous species; Inoculation; Life Sciences; Metals, Heavy - pharmacology; Microbial activity; Microbial Ecology; Microbiology; Mycorrhizae - growth & development; Natural Sciences; Nature Conservation; Naturvetenskap; Organic soils; Plant growth; Plant Roots - growth & development; Plant Roots - microbiology; Plant species; Plants; Rhizosphere; Soil fungi; Soil inoculation; Soil Microbiology; Soil microorganisms; Soil Pollutants - pharmacology; Soil pollution; Synergistic effect; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Water stress; Water Stress; Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus; Organic Amendment; Arbuscular Mycorrhizal; Inductively Couple Plasma Mass Spectrometry; Symbiosis; Community structure; Microbial activity; Interspecific association; Soil structure; Ecology; Symbiont; Water stress; Heavy metal; Pollutant; Inoculation; Mycorrhiza; Microbial community; Native species; Interspecific relation; Organic amendment
• ISSN: 0095-3628; 1432-184X; 1432-184X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00248-011-9972-y

Our aim was to examine the effect of water stress on plant growth and development of two native plant species (Tetraclinis articulata and Crithmum maritimum) and on microbial community composition and activity in the rhizosphere soil, following the addition of an organic amendment, namely sugar beet residue (SBR), and/or the inoculation with an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus, namely Glomus mosseae, in a non-sterile heavy metalpolluted soil. The AM inoculation did not have any significant effect on plant growth of both species. In T. articulata, SBR increased shoot growth, foliar P, total phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), fungi-related PLFA, AM fungi-related neutral lipid fatty acid, bacterial grampositive/gram-negative PLFA ratio and the ß-glucosidase and dehydrogenase activities. SBR and AM inoculation increased phosphatase activity in T. articulata plants grown under drought conditions. In both plants, there was a synergistic effect between AM inoculation and SBR on mycorrhizal colonisation under drought conditions. In C. maritimum, the increase produced by the SBR on total amounts of PLFA, bacterial gram-positive-related PLFA and bacterial gram-negative-related PLFA was considerably higher under drought conditions. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of the amendment with regard to stimulating microbial communities and plant growth was largely limited by drought, particularly for plant species with a low degree of mycorrhizal colonisation.