POTENTIAL OF INOCULATION WITH SOME TYPES OF CYANOBACTERIA ON IMPROVING SOIL CHARACTERISTICS

Shatta, A. M.; Mahmoud, A. H. H.; EL- Kotkat, M. B. O.; EL-zawawy, H. A. H.

doi:10.21608/jacb.2014.50048

POTENTIAL OF INOCULATION WITH SOME TYPES OF CYANOBACTERIA ON IMPROVING SOIL CHARACTERISTICS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Microbiology, Agriculture Botany, Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Al-zhar University.

10.21608/jacb.2014.50048

Abstract

The effect of soil inoculation with different cyanobacterial species (Nostoc commune, Anabaena sp., Nostoc calcicola.and Anabaena variabilis) and/ their mixture on some soil characteristics in terms of water holding capacity (WHC) %, organic carbon (OC), mg/kg soil; total nitrogen, mg/kg soil; dehydrogenase activity, TPF 100g; evolved CO₂ and viable count of cyanobacteria for sandy, clay loamy and calcareous soils. Results revealed that soil inoculation with cyanobacteria and/or its mixture increased the soil WHC%, organic carbon content, mg/kg soil, total nitrogen, mg/kg soil dehydrogenase activity, TPF 100g; evolved CO₂ and total cyanobacteria count over un- inoculated control. This trend was true along with increasing the inocubation periods and was more pronounced with clay loamy followed by calcareous and then sandy soils at 60 days incubation period. Since in this case a heavy growth of the inoculated cyanobacterial species were observed to cover the soil surface especially in case of the inoculation with the mixture of cyanobacterial species.