Nitrogen Transfer Is Enhanced By AMF Fungi In A Faba Bean/Wheat Intercropping

Abstract

Intercropping is an agricultural practice that can offer several benefits allowing a better native resources use efficiency and, consequently, a restraint of the auxiliary inputs and often a greater production compared to the monocultures (Brooker et al. 2015). Several authors observed that, in a legume/non-legume mixture, one of the benefits could be the N transfer (up to 80 % of the non-legume N demand; Thilakarathna et al. 2016). The transfer may occur via different pathways: legume rhizodeposition, plant tissue decomposition and direct transfer through arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) (Bedoussac et al. 2015). The latter, can simultaneously establish symbiotic relationship with different plant species creating a common mycorrhizal network, which serve as a preferential pathway for exchange among plants (He et al. 2003). However, contrasting results have been reported about the contribution of the AMF on N transfer; for instance, Li et al. (2009) showed that N transfer from mung bean to rice increased from 5.4% to 15.7% due to hyphal linkage, whereas Ikram et al. (1994) showed no significant differences with or without AMF inoculum. This experiment aimed to investigate the role of AMF on N transfer from faba bean to durum wheat grown in mixture, using the stem 15N injecting method.