Mendes Rodrigo, de Barros Inácio, D'Andréa Paulo Antônio, D'Andréa-Kühl Maria Stefânia Cruanhes, Rodrigues Geraldo Stachetti
Embrapa Meio Ambiente, Jaguariúna, SP, Brazil.
Embrapa Gado de Leite, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil.
Front Plant Sci. 2023 Aug 10;14:1214112. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1214112. eCollection 2023.
An ever-growing collection of commercial biostimulants is becoming available in a wide variety of forms and compositions to improve crop performance. Given the intricate nature of deciphering the underlying mechanisms of commercial products, which typically comprise various biological components, it is crucial for research in this area to have robust tools to demonstrate their effectiveness in field trials. Here, we took a multi-attribute approach to evaluating the impact of biostimulants on crop performance. First, we assessed the impact of a biostimulant on the soil and rhizosphere microbiomes associated to crops in eight reference farms, including corn (3 farms), soybean (2), cotton (2) and sugarcane (1), in different biomes and production contexts in Brazil and Paraguay. Second, we modeled a set of integrated indicators to measure crop responses to biostimulant application, including five analytical themes as follows: i) crop development and production (9 indicators), ii) soil chemistry (9), iii) soil physics (5), iv) soil biology (6) and v) plant health (10). Amplicon 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing revealed that the use of the biostimulant consistently changes the structure of bacterial and fungal communities associated with the production system for all evaluated crops. In the rhizosphere samples, the most responsive bacterial taxa to biostimulant application were in cotton; and in corn; and in sugar cane. The most responsive fungal taxa to biostimulant use were in soybean and cotton; and in corn. The proposed integrated indicators yielded highly favorable positive impact indices (averaging at 0.80), indicating that biostimulant-treated fields correlate with better plant development and crop performance. Prominent indices were observed for indicators in four themes: soil biology (average index 0.84), crop production (0.81), soil physics (compaction reduction 0.81), and chemical fertility (0.75). The multi-attribute approach employed in this study offers an effective strategy for assessing the efficacy of biostimulant products across a wide range of crops and production systems.
越来越多的商业生物刺激剂以各种各样的形式和成分出现，以改善作物性能。鉴于解读商业产品潜在机制的复杂性，这些产品通常包含各种生物成分，因此该领域的研究拥有强大的工具来证明其在田间试验中的有效性至关重要。在这里，我们采用多属性方法来评估生物刺激剂对作物性能的影响。首先，我们评估了一种生物刺激剂对巴西和巴拉圭不同生物群落和生产环境下八个参考农场中与作物相关的土壤和根际微生物群落的影响，这些农场包括玉米（3个农场）、大豆（2个）、棉花（2个）和甘蔗（1个）。其次，我们构建了一组综合指标来衡量作物对生物刺激剂施用的反应，包括以下五个分析主题：i）作物发育和产量（9个指标），ii）土壤化学（9个），iii）土壤物理（5个），iv）土壤生物学（6个）和v）植物健康（10个）。扩增子16S rRNA和ITS测序表明，对于所有评估作物，生物刺激剂的使用持续改变与生产系统相关的细菌和真菌群落结构。在根际样本中，对生物刺激剂施用反应最敏感的细菌类群在棉花中为 ；在玉米中为 ；在甘蔗中为 。对生物刺激剂使用反应最敏感的真菌类群在大豆和棉花中为 ；在玉米中为 。所提出的综合指标产生了非常有利的积极影响指数（平均为0.80），表明生物刺激剂处理的田地与更好的植物发育和作物性能相关。在四个主题的指标中观察到显著指数：土壤生物学（平均指数0.84）、作物产量（0.81）、土壤物理（压实度降低0.81）和化学肥力（0.75）。本研究采用的多属性方法为评估生物刺激剂产品在广泛作物和生产系统中的功效提供了一种有效策略。
