technical paper
Testing the potentiality of Technosol-isolated PGPB to enhance plant growth under saline conditions
keywords:
pgpb; technosol; nature-based solutions; salinity
The consequences of climate change, such as soil salinization and droughts, are some of the main threats to agricultural production, environmental health, and economic welfare. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) represent one nature-based solution to favour plant yield and growth in a changing environment. In our study, we explore the potentiality of Technosols to provide PGPBs with peculiar properties, including the capability to recover salt-affected soils and test the potentiality of Technosol-isolated PGPBs to enhance plant growth under saline conditions. For this purpose, selected Technosol-isolated PGPBs were mixed to produce two consortia, one of which was combined with an allochthonous halotolerant bacterium. Lettuce seeds were primed utilizing the two consortia and the saline bacterium alone. The experimental setup consisted of two steps. In the first one, seeds were primed with PGPBs and incubated on water agar media at different NaCl concentrations; in the second, seeds were incubated in not- and sterilized Technosol at different NaCl concentrations. Germination tests and biochemical analyses were performed to assess the potential benefits of PGPB symbiosis on plant growth performance. The water agar salinity test indicated an inhibitory effect of PGPBs on germination, while the use of saline-bacterium showed a positive response on seeds. Our study suggests that urban Technosols may provide PGPBs, whose features may be modified by allochthonous bacteria addition opening new perspectives in urban greening replacement, recovery of degraded environments, and urban soil microbiome ecology understanding.