Abstract
We aimed to evaluate N acquisition and 15N-fertiliser recovery efficiency of sugarcane as a function of N fertilisation and inoculation with plant growth-promoting diazotrophic bacteria (PGPDB) during the first crop season. A field experiment was performed with a randomized complete block design consisting of four replications and four treatments: control without N and without inoculation; control without N but with inoculation of a mixture of five strains of diazotrophic bacteria; N treatment (50 kg ha−1 N-urea) without inoculation; and N treatment with inoculation. Over seven harvests, we evaluated crop growth, biomass accumulation, N content, and N recovery using 15N-urea (excess of 1.5% atoms 15N). In addition, the contribution of biological N fixation (BNF) was measured using the 15N natural abundance technique in the plots without N fertiliser application. Inoculation with the mixture of five PGPDB strains increased the yield by 15% and N content in the shoots by 18% over the cycle. The average contribution of N fertiliser in plant N nutrition was 13%; other sources accounted for a large part of N in the shoots. Plants received N via BNF in 31% (average) of the treatments during the plant cycle; however, inoculation did not interfere with this process. The recovery efficiency of 15N-fertiliser was 50% in this first cycle with no differences among inoculation treatments. Nitrogen fertiliser applied to sugarcane resulted in a low impact on N accumulation, and a single application of an inoculant improved plant growth by mechanisms other than BNF.
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taken from four depth intervals in the area of the sugarcane experiment. Vertical bars represent standard deviation of the means (n = 4)
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Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank Dra. Sonia Regina de Souza, professor of Soil Department that contribute to the supervision of this work—In memoriam. This work was supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel-CAPES (fellowship for the second author Grant Number 001), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development—CNPq (Grant Number 470824/2013-1) and INCT-FBN (Grant Number 465133/2014-2); and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro—FAPERJ (fellowship Cientista do Nosso Estado) and Newton Fund Grant Number B/N012476/1 “Understanding and Exploiting Biological Nitrogen Fixation for Improvement of Brazilian Agriculture”, co-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Brazilian National Council for State Funding Agencies (CONFAP). The study is published with the permission of the Embrapa Agrobiologia Editorial Committee of Publication.
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Pereira, W., Oliveira, R.P., Pereira, A. et al. Nitrogen acquisition and 15N-fertiliser recovery efficiency of sugarcane cultivar RB92579 inoculated with five diazotrophs. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 119, 37–50 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-020-10100-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-020-10100-x