Environmental effects on competition for nodule occupancy between introduced and indigenous rhizobia and among introduced strains

Abstract

Understanding the impact of environmental variables on interstrain competition is important to ensure the successful use of rhizobial inoculant. In eight inoculation trials conducted at five diverse sites on Maui, Hawaii, equal numbers of three serologically distinct strains of effective, homologous rhizobia in a peat-based inoculant were applied to seeds of soybean, bush bean, cowpea, lima bean, peanut, leucaena, clover, and tinga pea. We studied the influence of environmental variables on interstrain competition between applied and indigenous rhizobia and among the three strains comprising the inoculum. Although temperature and soil fertility were correlated with nodule occupancy by inoculant strains in a few cases, the most significant environmental variable controlling their competitive success was the size of the indigenous rhizobial population. Nodule occupancy was best described (r2 = 0.51, p < 0.001) by the equation y = 97.88 − 15.03(log10(x + 1)), where y is percent nodule occupancy by inoculant rhizobia and x is the most probable number of indigenous rhizobia per gram soil. For each legume, one of the three inoculant strains was a poor competitor across sites. Competition between the other two strains varied between sites, but was infrequently related to environmental variables. Results indicated that competitive strains could be selected that perform well across a range of environments. Key words: competition, rhizobial ecology, inoculation response, competitiveness index.