1. Olive mill wastewater spreading and AMF inoculation effects in a low-input semi-arid Mediterranean crop succession.
- Author
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Caruso, Caterina, Maucieri, Carmelo, Cavallaro, Valeria, Borin, Maurizio, and Barbera, Antonio C.
- Subjects
OLIVE oil mills ,SEWAGE ,VESICULAR-arbuscular mycorrhizas ,SOIL inoculation ,PLANT succession ,BIOMASS ,GRAIN yields - Abstract
The study aimed to evaluate, in a marginal semi-arid Mediterranean agro-ecosystem (Sicily-Italy), the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and raw olive mill wastewater (OMW) (40 and 80 m
3 ha−1 ) on forage (durum wheat-snail medick intercropping) yield, and grain production of broad bean and chickpea. AMF inoculation significantly increased (+13.6%) forage dry biomass and durum wheat nitrogen (+22.8%) and phosphorus (+32.5%) uptake. AMF inoculation, significantly promoted broad bean phosphorus uptake (+11.5%) and root nodule number (+13.9%) in the absence of OMW. OMW spreading reduced weeds in the forage (−31.3%), root nodule number (−29.7%) and dry weight (−22.7%) in broad bean. OMW also significantly increased snail medick dry biomass (+19.3%) as compared to control treatments (0, 40 and 80 m3 H2 O ha−1 , average production 361 g m−2 ), and broad bean grain yield with a production of 2.46 ± 0.12 and 1.94 ± 0.09 Mg ha−1 with and without OMW, respectively. During the experiment AMF colonization was not affected by OMW volumes. The results obtained showed that in a marginal Mediterranean agro-ecosystem: 1) OMW, notwithstanding spreading volumes, is a valuable amendment to maximize legume yield while 2) AMF inoculation is a valuable practice to improve biomass production and N and P uptake in wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2018
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