مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد اتصال قابلیت های میکروبی با خاک و سلامت گیاه – الزویر ۲۰۱۸

Microorganisms are the key players in every agro-ecosystem. They are the natural inhabitants of all the soil and plant systems, in which they represent dominant presence in terms of their vast diversity and multipronged functional capabilities. Multifarious physical, chemical and biological factors usually represent good soil fertility status as a guaranty of sustainable agro-ecology, plant health and crop productivity. Since healthy soils are largely characterized by their profound biological and chemical behavior, microbial functionalities related to nutrient fixation, recycling, acquisition, sequestration, solubilization, mobilization, decomposition, degradation and remediation may act as definitive indicators. Functional capabilities of microbial communities associated with soils and plant parts have been critically identified and characterized in the past few decades. Application of individual microbes or their consortia in many crops established their role in finding out a supplement and/or substitute in the existing agricultural practices which are largely dependent on synthetic chemical inputs in present time. We are presenting here a detailed account of microbial community functions, their relation with the soil and plant health and the potential indicative roles they play to establish a sustainable soil ecological environment for supporting crop growth, development and yield in long term.

Introduction

At the time when we are looking for advances in producing more and more crops to feed the ever-increasing population and harvesting benefits from agricultural economy (Zhang et al., 2010), the adversities of the agro-ecosystem and socio-economic challenges are becoming severe. Farmers are facing issues of unpredictable climate, shrinking agricultural lands, depleting natural resources, balanced nutrition in soil and diminishing crop responses to agrochemicals. Therefore, the concerns for sustainable soil and plant health improvement are rising. Soil is the ultimate nutrient hub and bioresource reservoir for agricultural crops. Among the all biological entities, soil harbors huge diversity of microbial life forms. The microorganisms serve as active agents for nutrient sequestration, recycling and supply to plants. Wide array of benefits are extended to the plants by the rhizosphere microorganisms that fix dinitrogen (Brahmaprakash and Sahu, 2012; Gothandapani et al., 2017), improve phosphorus uptake (Ahilandeswari and Maheswari, 2016), degrade xenobiotics and sequester heavy metals (Ahemad and Malik, 2011; Pant et al., 2016), suppress phytopathogens and pests (Feng et al., 2013; Cheng et al., 2016), improve soil aggregation (Van Veen et al., 1997; Yilmaz and Sonmez, 2017), help plants tolerate abiotic stresses (Meena et al., 2017), remediate problematic soils (Yao et al., 2010; Tiwari et al., 2011) and chelate minerals like Fe, B and Zn (Ghosh et al., 2015). The microenvironment of plant rhizosphere is a major hub for microbial diversity and functionalities that contribute enormously to the plant and soil health. As microorganisms play crucial roles in the soil processes, any physical, chemical or biological changes happening in the soils clearly affect the microbiota. Microbes respond quickly to any changes happening in the soil ecosystem and act as true indicators for specific functions in the soil environment. Having seen the prospects and perspectives of microorganisms as critical biological players that can even play role of indicators, we elaborately described their potential functions as prominent soil and plant health indices in the agroecosystem.