Ahmad Ali, Aslam Zubair, Abbas Rana Nadeem, Bellitürk Korkmaz, Hussain Saddam, Hussain Sadam, Ahmad Muhammad, Zulfiqar Usman, Moussa Ihab Mohamed, Elshikh Mohamed S
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Süleymanpaşa, Tekirdağ 59030, Turkey.
ACS Omega. 2024 Jan 2;9(2):2123-2133. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c04402. eCollection 2024 Jan 16.
Wheat, an important cereal crop, is commonly cultivated in arid and semiarid areas, and therefore, it often experiences water deficit conditions. The consequences of induced stress on wheat can be mitigated through vermicompost amendments. To address drought stress on wheat seedlings, a pot experiment was conducted in the wire-house in which two contrasting wheat cultivars, Faisalabad-08 (drought-tolerant) and Galaxy-13 (drought-sensitive), were exposed to three water level conditions: well-watered [D0, 70% of field capacity (FC)], moderate drought (D1, 45% FC), and severe drought (D2, 30% FC). Four rates of vermicompost, derived from cow dung enriched with cellulolytic microbes, were applied (VT0, control; VT1, 4 t ha; VT2, 6 t ha; and VT3, 8 t ha) to the experiment. Data on various physiological, biochemical, and enzymatic antioxidants were recorded.
Our results demonstrated that the drought treatments significantly reduced nutrient accumulation, chlorophyll and SPAD values, and carotenoid content in both cultivars where the maximum reduction was recorded for severe drought stress. Nonetheless, the application of vermicompost significantly improved these traits, and statistically maximum chlorophyll contents, SPAD value, and total carotenoid contents were observed for VT1 in both cultivars under drought treatments. While the lowest chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were recorded for untreated replicated pots. Among the cultivars, Faisalabad-08 exhibited greater resistance to drought, as evidenced by higher values of the aforementioned traits compared to Galaxy-13. Soil-applied vermicompost also showed a positive influence on antioxidant enzyme activities in both wheat cultivars grown under well-watered as well as water-scarce conditions.
The findings of this study revealed that drought conditions substantially decreased the enzymatic antioxidants and physiological and biochemical attributes of the wheat crop. However, soil-applied vermicompost, particularly at an optimum rate, had a positive impact on the wheat seedlings under drought conditions. Moving forward, exploring the potential of utilizing cellulolytic microbe-enriched cow dung vermicompost stands as a promising avenue to mitigate the detrimental effects of water stress on wheat. Further research in this direction could offer substantial insights into enhancing wheat resilience and productivity under water stress conditions.
小麦作为一种重要的谷类作物，通常种植于干旱和半干旱地区，因此经常遭遇水分亏缺状况。通过施用蚯蚓堆肥可以减轻诱导胁迫对小麦的影响。为了应对小麦幼苗的干旱胁迫，在网室内进行了盆栽试验，试验选用了两个对比鲜明的小麦品种，费萨拉巴德 - 08（耐旱型）和银河 - 13（干旱敏感型），并使其暴露于三种水位条件下：充分浇水 [D0，田间持水量（FC）的70%]、中度干旱（D1，45% FC）和重度干旱（D2，30% FC）。试验采用了四种源自富含纤维素分解微生物的牛粪的蚯蚓堆肥施用量（VT0，对照；VT1，4 吨/公顷；VT2，6 吨/公顷；VT3，8 吨/公顷）。记录了各种生理、生化和酶促抗氧化剂的数据。
我们的结果表明，干旱处理显著降低了两个品种的养分积累、叶绿素和 SPAD 值以及类胡萝卜素含量，其中重度干旱胁迫下的降幅最大。尽管如此，施用蚯蚓堆肥显著改善了这些性状，并且在干旱处理下，两个品种中 VT1 的叶绿素含量、SPAD 值和总类胡萝卜素含量在统计上达到最大值。而未处理的重复盆栽中叶绿素和类胡萝卜素含量最低。在品种中，费萨拉巴德 - 08 表现出更强的抗旱性，上述性状的值高于银河 - 13 即为证明。在充分浇水和缺水条件下种植的两个小麦品种中，土壤施用蚯蚓堆肥对抗氧化酶活性也显示出积极影响。
本研究结果表明，干旱条件显著降低了小麦作物的酶促抗氧化剂以及生理和生化特性。然而，土壤施用蚯蚓堆肥，特别是在最佳施用量下，对干旱条件下的小麦幼苗有积极影响。展望未来，探索利用富含纤维素分解微生物的牛粪蚯蚓堆肥的潜力是减轻水分胁迫对小麦不利影响的一条有前景的途径。在这个方向上的进一步研究可以为提高水分胁迫条件下小麦的恢复力和生产力提供重要见解。
