Abstract
In agricultural ecosystems, pest insects, pathogens and reduced soil fertility pose major challenges to crop productivity and are responsible for significant yield losses worldwide. Management of belowground pests and diseases remains particularly challenging due to the complex nature of the soil and the limited reach of conventional agrochemicals. Boosting the presence of beneficial rhizosphere organisms is a potentially sustainable alternative and may help to optimize crop health and productivity. Field application of single beneficial soil organisms has shown satisfactory results under optimal conditions. This might be further enhanced by combining multiple beneficial soil organisms, but this remains poorly investigated. Here, we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms that have different rhizosphere functions and studied their effects on crop performance. Plant beneficial Pseudomonas bacteria, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN), were inoculated individually or in combinations at seeding, and their effects on plant performance were evaluated throughout the season. We used traditional and molecular identification tools to monitor their persistence over the cropping season in augmented and control treatments, and to estimate the possible displacement of native populations. In three separate trials, beneficial soil organisms were successfully introduced into the native populations and readily survived the field conditions. Various Pseudomonas, mycorrhiza and nematode treatments improved plant health and productivity, while their combinations provided no significant additive or synergistic benefits compared to when applied alone. EPN application temporarily displaced some of the native EPN, but had not significant long-term effect on the associated food web. The strongest positive effect on wheat survival was observed for Pseudomonas and AMF during a season with heavy natural infestation by the frit fly, Oscinella frit, major pest of cereals. Hence, beneficial impacts differed between the beneficial soil organisms and were most evident for plants under biotic stress. Overall, our findings indicate that in wheat production under the test conditions the three beneficial soil organisms can establish nicely and are compatible, but their combined application provides no additional benefits. Further studies are required, also in other cropping systems, to fine-tune the functional interactions among beneficial soil organisms, crops, and the environment.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Pseudomonas treatment improved wheat plant health and productivity.
- Taxon
- wheat
Triticum aestivume0 - Treatment
- Pseudomonase1
- Interactor
- Pseudomonas
Pseudomonase1other - Outcome
- plant health and productivitye1
- Direction
- improvede1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e1“Various Pseudomonas, mycorrhiza and nematode treatments improved plant health and productivity”
Claim · model-written summary
Mycorrhiza treatment improved wheat plant health and productivity.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- mycorrhizae1
- Interactor
- mycorrhizae1symbiont
- Outcome
- plant health and productivitye1
- Direction
- improvede1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e1“Various Pseudomonas, mycorrhiza and nematode treatments improved plant health and productivity”
Claim · model-written summary
Nematode treatment improved wheat plant health and productivity.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- nematodee1
- Interactor
- entomopathogenic nematodese4biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- plant health and productivitye1
- Direction
- improvede1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e1“Various Pseudomonas, mycorrhiza and nematode treatments improved plant health and productivity”
e4“entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN)”
Claim · model-written summary
Pseudomonas gave the strongest positive effect on wheat survival under heavy natural infestation by the frit fly.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume3
- Treatment
- Pseudomonase3
- Interactor
- Oscinella frit
Oscinella frite3pest - Second interactor
- PseudomonasPseudomonase3other
- Outcome
- survivale3
- Direction
- strongest positive effecte3
- Qualifier
- heavy natural infestatione3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“The strongest positive effect on wheat survival was observed for Pseudomonas and AMF during a season with heavy natural infestation by the frit fly, Oscinella frit, major pest of cereals”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF gave the strongest positive effect on wheat survival under heavy natural infestation by the frit fly.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume3
- Treatment
- AMFe3
- Interactor
- Oscinella fritOscinella frite3pest
- Second interactor
- AMFe3symbiont
- Outcome
- survivale3
- Direction
- strongest positive effecte3
- Qualifier
- heavy natural infestatione3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“The strongest positive effect on wheat survival was observed for Pseudomonas and AMF during a season with heavy natural infestation by the frit fly, Oscinella frit, major pest of cereals”
Claim · model-written summary
Combined treatments gave no significant additive or synergistic benefit on wheat compared with single applications.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- their combinationse2
- Outcome
- additive or synergistic benefitse2
- Direction
- no significante2
- Comparator
- when applied alonee2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e2“while their combinations provided no significant additive or synergistic benefits compared to when applied alone”
Claim · model-written summary
EPN application temporarily displaced some of the native EPN in the field.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- EPN applicatione5
- Interactor
- native EPNe5other
- Second interactor
- EPNe5biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- native EPNe5
- Direction
- displacede5
- Qualifier
- temporarilye5
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e5“EPN application temporarily displaced some of the native EPN, but had not significant long-term effect on the associated food web”
Claim · model-written summary
EPN application had no significant long-term effect on the associated food web.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- EPN applicatione5
- Interactor
- EPNe5biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- associated food webe5
- Direction
- not significante5
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e5“EPN application temporarily displaced some of the native EPN, but had not significant long-term effect on the associated food web”
Claim · model-written summary
The beneficial soil organisms were successfully introduced into the native populations in the field.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Outcome
- introduced into the native populationse7
- Setting
- field conditionse7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e7“beneficial soil organisms were successfully introduced into the native populations and readily survived the field conditions”
Claim · model-written summary
The beneficial soil organisms readily survived the field conditions in the three trials.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Outcome
- readily survivede7
- Setting
- field conditionse7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we inoculated wheat plots with combinations of three beneficial soil organisms”
e7“beneficial soil organisms were successfully introduced into the native populations and readily survived the field conditions”
Claim · model-written summary
The three beneficial soil organisms are compatible with each other in wheat production under the test conditions.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume6
- Outcome
- compatiblee6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e6“in wheat production under the test conditions the three beneficial soil organisms can establish nicely and are compatible”
The same questions in other papers
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- no effect
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See all 24 papers →mycorrhiza · yield · Triticum aestivum (wheat)Positive and negative results
94 papers in the same direction as this paper · 7 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- no effect
- no effect
- no effect
99 papers more in this group
See all 103 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.