Co-applied biochar and drought tolerant PGPRs induced more improvement in soil quality and wheat production than their individual applications under drought conditions

Laraib Malik; Sabir Hussain; Muhammad Shahid; Faisal Mahmood; Hayssam M Ali; Mehreen Malik; Muhammad Sanaullah; Zubda Zahid; Tanvir Shahzad

doi:10.7717/peerj.18171

Co-applied biochar and drought tolerant PGPRs induced more improvement in soil quality and wheat production than their individual applications under drought conditions

PeerJ. 2024 Oct 25:12:e18171. doi: 10.7717/peerj.18171. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Laraib Malik¹, Sabir Hussain¹, Muhammad Shahid², Faisal Mahmood¹, Hayssam M Ali³, Mehreen Malik⁴, Muhammad Sanaullah⁴, Zubda Zahid⁵, Tanvir Shahzad¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
² Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University, Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Agro environmental Chemistry and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food, and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Background: Plant growth and development can be greatly impacted by drought stress. Suitable plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) or biochar (BC) application has been shown to alleviate drought stress for plants. However, their co-application has not been extensively explored in this regard.

Methods: We isolated bacterial strains from rhizospheric soils of plants from arid soils and characterized them for plant growth promoting characteristics like IAA production and phosphate solubilization as well as for drought tolerance. Three bacterial strains or so called PGPRs, identified as Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus tropicus, and Bacillus paramycoides based on their 16S rRNA, were screened for further experiments. Wheat was grown on normal, where soil moisture was maintained at 75% of water holding capacity (WHC), and induced-drought (25% WHC) stressed soil in pots. PGPRs were applied alone or in combination with a biochar derived from pyrolysis of tree wood.

Results: Drought stress substantially inhibited wheat growth. However, biochar addition under stressed conditions significantly improved the wheat growth and productivity. Briefly, it increased straw yield by 25%, 100-grain weight by 15% and grain yield by 10% compared to the control. Moreover, co-application of biochar with PGPRs B. thuringiensis, B. tropicus and B. paramycoides further enhanced straw yield by 37-41%, 100-grain weight by 30-36%, and grain yield by 22-22.57%, respectively. The co-application also enhanced soil quality by increasing plant-available phosphorus by 4-31%, microbial biomass by 33-45%, and soil K⁺/Na⁺ ratio by 41-44%.

Conclusion: Co-application of PGPRs and biochar alleviated plant drought stress by improving nutrient availability and absorption. Acting as a nutrient reservoir, biochar worked alongside PGPRs, who solubilized nutrients from the former and promoted wheat growth. We recommend that the co-application of suitable PGPRs and biochar is a better technology to produce wheat under drought conditions than using these enhancers separately.

Keywords: Biochar; Drought; Grain yield; PGPR; Plant available phosphorus; Soil enzymatic activity.

MeSH terms

Bacillus / physiology
Charcoal* / chemistry
Charcoal* / pharmacology
Droughts*
Soil Microbiology*
Soil* / chemistry
Triticum* / growth & development

Substances

biochar
Charcoal
Soil

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2024R123), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.