The document summarizes a study on the arbuscular mycorrhizal association and growth of Faidherbida albida trees in northern Ethiopia. It finds that soil properties, AM spore abundance, and root colonization varied between cultivated land, grazing land, and area exclosures. Seedlings inoculated with AM fungi from different land uses had significantly greater growth than non-inoculated controls. The highest growth was from area exclosure and grazing land inocula, indicating the importance of native soil mycorrhizal potentials for improved plant growth and environmental protection.

1. Arbuscular mycorrhizal association and growth
response of Faidherbida albida (Del.) A. Chev. as
influenced by land use type, in the Northern
Ethiopia
By: Mengsteab Hailemariam
February 2014

2. 1. Introduction
1.1. Background and justification
Faidherbida albida:
Leguminous agroforestry tree, used in arid and semiarid zones
of Africa for soil conservation and soil fertility improvements.
Establishment and growth in dryland areas is very slow due to
hostile environmental conditions.
plants possess against stress, grow in association with number
of soil micro-organisms that can alleviate the stress
symptoms.
AM are common underground symbiosis in revegetation by
contributing to nutrient cycling processes

3. Cont’d…
 before
considering inoculation, a site's native
inoculum potential should be evaluated

Relationship between propagule abundance and plant
growth response is almost certainly not linear.
 important
to include plant response to different
soil inoculum sources.

4. Cont’d…
 The
objectives of the study were:
 To
determine spore abundance of AM in the soils
of F. albida trees grown in different LUs;
 To
estimate the extent of AM colonization of
root of F. albida trees grown in different LUs, and
 To
investigate the effect of inoculation on the
growth performance of F. albida seedlings;

5. 2. Materials and methods
 GH
experiment was conducted in MU (13 0 290 N
and 390 28 E altitude 2200 m.a.s.l.)
 F.
albida trees grown on different Lus, same agroclimatic condition and season were selected.
 samples

were collected for
Spore analysis, AM colonization, physico-chemical
analysis and green house experiment.

6. Cont’d…
Soil properties
 OM, Total N, Ava. P, Exchangeable bases (Na, K, Ca
and Mg), and CEC, BD, pH and EC, and Soil texture
Spores:
 Extracted from 100g of air-dried sub-samples by wet
sieving and decanting method followed by flotationcentrifugation in 50% sucrose (Brundrret et al., 1996).
 identified to genius level (Brundrett et al., 1996, and
INVAM)

7. Cont’d…
AM colonization %
 estimated by the gridline
(Giovannetti and Mosse, 1980).
intersect
method
AM fungal inoculum preparation
 propagated on Sorghum bicolor plants
 50 gm of fungal inoculums was added to each
experimental seedlings.
 controls were prepared without AM fungal propagules

8. Cont’d…

Seed treatment, planting and growing conditions

Seeds collected were surface sterilized and allowed to
germinate on petridish and sown

Potted seedlings watered to field capacity.

Four treatments, arranged in CRD of five replication

Plants harvested after 12 weeks of growth and growth
parameters were determined.

9. Cont’d…

Statistical analysis

Data were subjected to ANOVA using SAS
statistical software (SAS, version 9).

Relationship were evaluated
Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
by
employing

10. Result and discussion
Soil properties and vegetation characteristics

Significant difference in N, P, K, OC, Ca, Mg, Na, CEC
and textural classes (P<0.05) showed in the three LUs.

Cul. and gra. Lands: weeds and variety of grasses, but
area exlo. : grasses, herbaceous plants, shrubs species.

Significant (P<0.05) difference in DBH and Height of
trees observed

11. Table 1: Mean plot characteristics of each LUT (Mean ± S.E of three replicates).
Soil
properties
pH
EC
O.C
N
Unit
(H2O, 1:2.5)
(ds/m)
(%)
(%)
Land use type
Cultivated
land
6.90 ± 0.09
0.15 ± 0.03
1.003a ± 0.019
0.074a ± 0.002
Av.P
(ppm)
13.07a ± 0.91
Grazing land
6.71 ± 0.29
0.18 ± 0.05
1.028 a± 0.061
0.062a ± 0.06
Area
exclosure
6.97a± 0.17
0.11 ± 0.03
0.8 b± 0.049
0.035b ± 0.005
10.17 a± 1.46
F
0.16
1.12
7.16
19.68
25.68
P
0.8522
0.3857
0.0257
0.0023
1.46b ± 0.49
0.0011
55.68
K
Ca
(centmol(+)/kg
(centmol(+)/kg
1.078a ± 0.057
2.67a ± 0.291
0.778b ± 0.075
2.6 a± 0.208
0.221c ± 0.034
1.4b ± 0.116
Mg
(centmol(+)/kg
2.58a ± 0.265
1.78b ± 0.104
1.18c ± 0.257
10.8
10.09
0.0001
0.0103
0.0121
45.96
Na
CEC
BD
(centmol(+)/kg
meq/100gm
(g/cm3)
0.507a ± 0.023
6.20ba ± 0.378
1.616 ± 0.039
0.362ba ± 0.029
7.733a ±0.698
1.471 ± 0.039
0.217b ± 0.002
4.80b ± 0.378
1.529 ± 0.037
sand
%
68.33b ± 0.67
86.33a ± 2.91
91.00a ± 1.16
8.33
3.64
42.04
0.0002
0.0185
0.0924
0.0003
38.15
silt
%
19.00a ± 1.16
5.67b ± 1.76
3.0b ± 1.55
0.0004
19.75
clay
%
12.67a ± 0.67
8.0b ± 1.15
6.0b± 0.0
0.0023

12.  AM
spore abundance
 significant
differences (F=24.01, P<0.0014) observed
among samples collected from three LUs.
 highest
spores on soil samples from area exclo. and
lowest from gra. land.
 four

genera recorded in all LUs.
Glomus: abundant and frequent genus in all LUs
followed
by
Gigaspora
Scutellospora
and
Acaulospora

13.  AM root

colonization
Significant (F= 11.62, P= 0.0086) variation observed
among tree root grown on different LUTs (Table 2).
Table 2: Spore abundance (100 gm-1 of dry soil) and AM root colonization
of F. albida trees grown on different LUs. Mean ± S.E of three replications.
Land use type
Area exclosure
Grazing land
Spore
F
abundance
3041.3a ±148.34 24.01
1364.0c ±205.56
P
0.0014
AM root
colonization
71.1a±1.7
F
P
11.62 0.0086
66.5a±1.4
b
Cultivated land column followed by same letter do not differ significantly at P<0.05
61.5b±1.1
Means in the same 2002.7 ±159.02

14.  Growth
parameters
 Inoculated
seedlings were colonized by AM fungal
structures (A, V, H) (Table 3).
 None
from control group were colonized.
 the
greater growth attained by the plants which were
colonized by AM fungi.
 significant
(P<0.05) growth enhancements of seedlings
inoculated with AMF was recorded.
 AM
colonization was not significantly correlated (r =
0.317, P = 0.376) with spores abundance.

15. Table 3: growth parameters of F. albida seedlings inoculated with AM fungal
inoculums collected from the rhizosphere soils of F. albida trees grown on
different LUs and AM un- inoculated seedlings. Mean ± S.E of five
replications
Growth
Parameters
Soils collected land use type
Unit
(AM-)
Control
(AM+) Area
exclosure
(AM+)
Grazing land
(AM+)
Cultivated
land
cm
44.0b ±4.16
96.67a±8.09
99.0a±8.96
67.0ba±6.56
13.32
0.0018
Shoot dry mass gm
2.06c±0.17
8.51a±0.39
8.21a±0.32
5.32b±0.49
67.57
<.0001
Root dry mass
gm
1.09c±0.13
5.31a±0.79
5.19ba±0.48
2.73b±0.22
18.24
0.0006
Root: Shoot
gg-1
0.529a±0.008
0.618a±0.063
0.629a±0.034
0.516a±0.008
2.64
0.1211
Root length
cm
607.8d±100.5
3149.1a±189.9
2416.3b±309.8 1605.3c± 204.1 25.93
0.0001
Leaf number
num
244.3c±20.4
725a±59.5
715.7a±59.29
609b±66.46
17.12
0.0007
Branch number num
2.33b± 0.88
5.00ba± 1.73
9.00a± 2.31
8.00ba±1.53
3.19
0.0840
0.0c±0.0
32.89a±1.60
30.25ba±2.14
25.23b±2.37
71.11
<.0001
Height
P
F value value
AM
colonization
%
Means in the same row followed by same letter do not differ significantly at P<0.05

16.  Conclusion
and recommendation

AM association can be influenced by LU systems, age of
trees, and environmental conditions

higher number of spores with low AM colonization
observed in cultivated land compared with grazing lands,
 implies low level of infective AM populations.

Significant growth enhancement was recorded on AM
inoculated seedlings.

17. Cont’d…

higher growth performance observed on area exclo and
gra. Land soils

emphasis the importance of prior native soil mycorrhizal
potentials for better plant growth improvement and
environment protection.
investigating the potential of AM on growth performance
of this tree spp. associated with different water levels
and fertilizer application is needed, and
 field experiment is needed to confirm the inoculation
effects of these AM inocula, and
