The Potential Capabilities of two species of Azolla as a Bioaccumulator in Summer

Abstract

Now a days, worldwide excessive use of chemical fertilizer, can have many undesirable effects on human health and the environment, which can be reduced or eliminated by adopting new agricultural practices such as use of organic inputs, namely manure, biofertilizer. On the other hand, water eutrophication has been a challenging global environmental problem recently. Plants can be grown in eutrophicated water, and after consumption from eutrophicated water, the harvested biomass of this plant can play important role as a useful green manure, rich in N P K. The use of Azolla, a N fixing water-fern can be a novel idea in this regard. Azolla spp. have a unique capability to accumulate more P, K within its body than its requirement and can be considered as NPK tablets. So, the experiment was conducted in order to find out the efficient species with regard to high biomass production with high accumulation of P, K, and tolerating higher concentration of media-P in summer. Light intensity and concentrations of media-P have a remarkable influence on the productivity and NPK accumulation of the species. Open area was more favorable than the partial shade for biomass production. Both the species have the capability to tolerate 60 ppm of media-P and produce their maximum biomass at only 15 ppm of media-P. A. filiculoides was found to produce more biomass, accumulate more tissue-P, contain more or less the same amount of N, and less K when compared with A. pinnata. Thus, in hot climate, A. filiculoides can be considered better accumulator of Phosphorus and A.pinnata can be considered better accumulator of Potassium being an effective scavenger of P, K.