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Root exudates of a legume tree as a nitrogen source for a tropical fodder grass

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Abstract

Exudation of nitrogenous compounds from the roots of dinitrogen-fixing plants is a potential source of nitrogen for adjacent plants in intercropping systems. We studied (1) the extent of N exudation from the roots of a tropical legume tree Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp., and (2) the ability of a C4 fodder grass Dichantium aristatum (Poir) C.E. Hubbard and its mycorrhizal symbionts to absorb N from tree exudates in a glasshouse experiment. Root exudates of 15N-labelled trees were collected in hydroponic culture and applied with irrigation water on grass grown in separate pots. During the 10-week experiment, the trees exuded 34.1 ± 5.0 mg of N, which represented 1.7 ± 0.2% of their total N by the end of the experiment. The total amount exuded would have been enough to supply 16% of grass N content by the end of the experiment. The grass, however, absorbed only 3.8–7.5% of 15N in exudates and gained 0.8–1.1% of its N from exudates. The low absorption of exudate N by grass was explained by probable soil microbial immobilisation and by the dilution of exuded N in the substantially larger pool of soil mineral N. A close contact between the root systems of N donor and recipient plants directly or via their mycorrhizal symbionts seems to be a precondition of the apparently direct N transfer earlier observed in field studies of the same soil-plant system.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Saint-Ange Sophie and Sylvestre Jacoby-Koaly for their skilful technical assistance during the experiment. We are grateful to the Antillean Research Centre of INRA for providing the framework for the experiment. Contribution of R. Jalonen and P. Nygren was financed by the Academy of Finland (grant 111796) and the contribution of J. Sierra by the Département Environnement et Agronomie of INRA

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Ecology, University of Helsinki, P. O. Box 27, 00014, University of Helsinki, Finland

    Riina Jalonen & Pekka Nygren

  2. INRA, UR135 Agropédoclimatique de la zone Caraïbe, 97170, Petit-Bourg, France

    Jorge Sierra

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  1. Riina Jalonen
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  2. Pekka Nygren
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Correspondence to Riina Jalonen.

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Jalonen, R., Nygren, P. & Sierra, J. Root exudates of a legume tree as a nitrogen source for a tropical fodder grass. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 85, 203–213 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-009-9259-6

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