Effect of Burkholderia as biofertiliser on cereal productivity
Creators: name: Ben Mahmud, Merfat
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: Biofertilisers are rhizosphere microorganisms inoculated to reduce the need for N or P fertiliser application and maximise plant growth and nutrition, resulting in greater grain yield and N or P content. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of diazotrophic bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere of wheat in Victoria, Australia. This thesis shows that N2-fixing Burkholderia species have great potential as biofertilisers on wheat productivity.<br><br>In Chapter 2, strains of bacteria were isolated from wheat-growing soils in main Victoria wheat belt at Horsham and Birchip in North West Victoria. Strains were identified as Burkholderia spp. by their closest matches in the 16S DNA and by morphology and physiology.<br><br>In Chapter 3, one selected strain from each of Birchip and Horsham were used to inoculate wheat in a pot trial in a glasshouse during winter-spring. Soil was collected on site from wheat fields. Pots were inoculated with these strains to evaluate the effects of Burkholderia inoculum as biofertiliser on the plant growth and yield. Different nitrogen sources (urea 46% N and ammonium sulphate 21% N) were used as fertiliser at one of four levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg N/ ha). There was a greater effect in Birchip than in Horsham soil and with ammonium sulphate than with urea due to waterlogying in Horsham soil.<br><br>In Chapter 4, field-grown wheat was inoculated with the same strains of Burkholderia. Three experiments were carried out in plots at two sites, dryland and irrigated fields at Horsham and a dryland field at Birchip, during the winter wheat season of 2006, to evaluate the effect of Burkholderia species inoculum and different types of nitrogen source at one of four levels of added N (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg N/ha) on wheat growth and yield. The effects of both bacterial inoculation and N fertiliser on growth promotion and grain yield. Since 2006 was a year of drought, dry land crops were unsuccessful. Grain %N as well as total N content in grain per area in the Horsham irrigated field increased with increasing N fertiliser levels up to 100 kg N/ha.<br><br>In Chapter 5, acetylene reduction (ARA) activity was measured in the pots for both inoculated and uninoculated plants at various growth stages and populations of nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with the wheat roots and bulk soil were measured in addition to biomass and N content of plants and grain. Molecular tracing using specific primers showed that the inoculum was present only in inoculated treatments. Up to 60% of the increased N content of the grain in inoculated plants was potentially derived from nitrogen fixed by the inoculum in the rhizosphere.<br><br>It was concluded that the most significant result due to inoculation was the consistent maximal increase of N content in grain in inoculated treatments with ammonium sulphate fertiliser at 100 kg N/ha. Inoculation with Burkholderia consistently increased %N in wheat grain, with the potential benefit of decreasing the production cost and reducing use of chemical fertilisers. <br>