scholarly journals Tailoring plant-associated microbial inoculants in agriculture: a roadmap for successful application

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (13) ◽  
pp. 3878-3901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maged M Saad ◽  
Abdul Aziz Eida ◽  
Heribert Hirt

Abstract Plants are now recognized as metaorganisms which are composed of a host plant associated with a multitude of microbes that provide the host plant with a variety of essential functions to adapt to the local environment. Recent research showed the remarkable importance and range of microbial partners for enhancing the growth and health of plants. However, plant–microbe holobionts are influenced by many different factors, generating complex interactive systems. In this review, we summarize insights from this emerging field, highlighting the factors that contribute to the recruitment, selection, enrichment, and dynamic interactions of plant-associated microbiota. We then propose a roadmap for synthetic community application with the aim of establishing sustainable agricultural systems that use microbial communities to enhance the productivity and health of plants independently of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Considering global warming and climate change, we suggest that desert plants can serve as a suitable pool of potentially beneficial microbes to maintain plant growth under abiotic stress conditions. Finally, we propose a framework for advancing the application of microbial inoculants in agriculture.

ISRN Agronomy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zareen Khan ◽  
Grant Guelich ◽  
Ha Phan ◽  
Regina Redman ◽  
Sharon Doty

Endophytic associations with plants have a beneficial effect for many different plant species with some of them being host specific. Several endophytes isolated from poplar and willow were screened for their effects on commercially important crops including corn, tomato, pepper, squash, sunflower, and grasses. Most of these endophytes produce growth hormones such as indoleacetic acid (IAA) and have the nitrogenase gene required for nitrogen fixation. The effects of these isolates on plant growth and yield were evaluated under greenhouse conditions. We found that inoculated plants not only had better viability and earlier flowering and fruiting, they also had increased plant growth and fruit yields when grown in nitrogen-limited soil. In a particular variety of perennial rye grass, the endophytes increased the total nitrogen content of the plants, indicative of nitrogen fixation, in addition to promoting plant growth. The use of specific endophytes may be preferable to the use of chemical fertilizers because of the monetary and environmental costs, contributing to more sustainable agricultural systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Lavinia Popescu ◽  
Adela Sorinela Safta

The paper addresses through the new type concept the analysis of the feasibility of agricultural systems adaptable to environmental requirements. The development of a conceptual system for the feasibility of soil techniques through the responsible management of agricultural technological mechanisms can be expected to mitigate the impact of climate change. This paper analyzes the role of agricultural technologies based on the implementation of sustainable agriculture; as well as their interconnectivity in the local environment. In the methodological analysis was performed by compiling statistical data on agricultural production and effects of greenhouse gases (GHG) on agriculture


Author(s):  
William R. Sutton ◽  
Jitendra P. Srivastava ◽  
James E. Neumann ◽  
Peter Droogers ◽  
Brent Boehlert

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-218
Author(s):  
Ousseyni Kalilou

Abstract Environmental stress contributes to food insecurity, poverty, forced migration and violent conflict in the Sahel, with climate change aggravating the situation. The production of gum arabic from the acacia tree increasingly aligns with the community stakeholders’ efforts to promote climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Based on expert interviews and field observations in Niger, and a reading of relevant documents, I found that gum arabic production is valuable for conflict mitigation because it helps tackle the root causes of violent conflicts. The acacia gum tree is a natural soil fixer and multinational companies have coveted the resin from the tree, which is a rising commodity and a promising source of revenue for the local inhabitants. As different communities work together and cooperate with outside actors (government agencies, international partners, NGOs and businesses), the opportunities to build social cohesion around the tree increase. By facilitating ecological improvement, social inclusion and poverty alleviation, the promotion of gum arabic production, despite other issues such as bad natural resource governance, is a critical environmental peacebuilding strategy. Hence, suitable funding of massive afforestation with the acacia tree fits with community-based natural climate solutions to global humanitarian issues by protecting and restoring the local environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2077
Author(s):  
Mahnaz Sarlak ◽  
Laura Valeria Ferretti ◽  
Rita Biasi

About two billion rural individuals depend on agricultural systems associated with a high amount of risk and low levels of yield in the drylands of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Human activities, climate change and natural extreme events are the most important drivers of desertification. This phenomenon has occurred in many regions of Iran, particularly in the villages in the periphery of the central desert of Iran, and has made living in the oases so difficult that the number of abandoned villages is increasing every year. Land abandonment and land-use change increase the risk of desertification. This study aims to respond to the research questions: (i) does the planning of green infrastructures on the desert margin affect the distribution and balance of the population? (ii) how should the green belt be designed to have the greatest impact on counteracting desertification?, and (iii) does the design of productive landscape provide the solution? Through a wide-ranging and comprehensive approach, this study develops different scenarios for designing a new form of green belt in order to sustainably manage the issues of environmental protection, agricultural tradition preservation and desertification counteraction. This study proposes a new-traditional greenbelt including small low-cost and low-tech projects adapted to rural scale.


2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1606) ◽  
pp. 3100-3114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Salguero-Gómez ◽  
Wolfgang Siewert ◽  
Brenda B. Casper ◽  
Katja Tielbörger

Desert species respond strongly to infrequent, intense pulses of precipitation. Consequently, indigenous flora has developed a rich repertoire of life-history strategies to deal with fluctuations in resource availability. Examinations of how future climate change will affect the biota often forecast negative impacts, but these—usually correlative—approaches overlook precipitation variation because they are based on averages . Here, we provide an overview of how variable precipitation affects perennial and annual desert plants, and then implement an innovative, mechanistic approach to examine the effects of precipitation on populations of two desert plant species. This approach couples robust climatic projections, including variable precipitation, with stochastic, stage-structured models constructed from long-term demographic datasets of the short-lived Cryptantha flava in the Colorado Plateau Desert (USA) and the annual Carrichtera annua in the Negev Desert (Israel). Our results highlight these populations' potential to buffer future stochastic precipitation. Population growth rates in both species increased under future conditions: wetter, longer growing seasons for Cryptantha and drier years for Carrichtera . We determined that such changes are primarily due to survival and size changes for Cryptantha and the role of seed bank for Carrichtera . Our work suggests that desert plants, and thus the resources they provide, might be more resilient to climate change than previously thought.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Faysse ◽  
J.-D. Rinaudo ◽  
S. Bento ◽  
A. Richard-Ferroudji ◽  
M. Errahj ◽  
...  

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