Inoculation of Leucaena and Prosopis seedlings with Glomus and Rhizobium species in saline soil: Rhizosphere relations and seedling growth

Abstract

Abstract Leaucaena leucocephala and Prosopis juliflora seedlings were grown in a sandy loam and loamy clay soil amended with three concentrations of NaCl with and without the mycorrhizal fungus Glomus fasciculatum and a Rhizobium isolate. After 16 weeks in glasshouse culture L. leucocephala and P. juliflora plants inoculated with G. fasciculatum and Rhizobium developed abundant vesicular‐arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) and root nodules in the sandy loam soil without NaCl amendments. In contrast, root system colonization by both rhizosphere symbionts was reduced in the loamy clay soil. In the absence of NaCl, plants inoculated with combinations of VAM and rhizobia had significantly greater total dry weight, tissue phosphorus concentration, and leaf area compared to seedlings colonized with individual symbionts in both soils. Although NaCl amendments greater than 40 and 80 mM decreased mycorrhizal colonization, number of chlamydospores, and root system nodulation by rhizobia, dry weight and tissue P concentrat...