Use of the15N natural abundance technique for the quantification of the contribution of N2 fixation to sugar cane and other grasses

By R. Boddey, J. C. Polidoro, A. S. Resende, B. Alves, S. Urquiaga. 2001

184 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The use of the 15 N natural abundance technique to quantify contribution of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) to any plant is based on the observation that N derived from soil is generally slightly different [usually higher in 15 N abundance (δ 15 N‰)] than that of the air. Plants or micro-organisms growing solely on BNF generally accumulate N with 15 N isotopic abundance lower than that of the air (i.e. δ 15 N‰ is negative), while plants obtaining all N from the soil generally show a positive δ 15 N‰ signal. The technique is applied by estimating the 15 N abundance of the putative N 2 -fixing' crop and analysing the 15 N abundance of neighbouring non-N 2 -fixing reference plants. However, often there are such large variations in the N derived from the soil by different non-N 2 -fixing plants that in natural ecosystems it is often impossible to even distinguish plants that are benefiting form BNF, let alone quantity this contribution. The reasons why soil derived N can vary so widely, especially in natural ecosystems, are briefly discussed and a sampling strategy is described to assess possible BNF inputs to sugar cane plants in commercial plantations in Brazil. The results suggest that in nine of the 1 1 sites studied, BNF inputs were significant ranging from 25 to 60% of N assimilated.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/092bd469ba5232095cb655b9fc74e6cd6d22fa5a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Agronomy and Crop Science

1. R. Boddey
2. M. Peoples
3. D. Herridge
4. A. McNeill
5. T. Coba de la Peña
6. J. Vessey
7. C. Franche
8. J. Pueyo

In Plant Science

1. J. Barea
2. R. Boddey
3. M. Peoples
4. C. Prigent-Combaret
5. C. Franche
6. Ivan R. Kennedy
7. A. McNeill
8. M. Kecskés

In Soil Science

1. M. Peoples
2. R. Boddey
3. D. Herridge
4. J. Barea
5. J. Vessey
6. C. Prigent-Combaret
7. A. McNeill
8. A. Richardson

Citations in the corpus

• Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria as biofertilizers (2003, background): “An exception to the generally low influence of associative BNF are the symbioses between sugarcane and endophytic diazotrophs, in which the host routinely obtains 20–60% of its N requirements from the microsymbiont (Boddey et al., 2001).”
• Plant growth promotion in cereal and leguminous agricultural important plants: from microorganism capacities to crop production. (2014, background): “These potential PGPR can fertilize several important agronomic plants such as wheat (Boddey et al. 1986), sorghum (Stein et al. 1997), maize (Garcia de Salamone et al. 1996), rice (Malik et al. 1997) or sugarcane (Boddey et al. 2001).”
• Improving Sugarcane Growth and Nutrient Uptake by Inoculating Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus (2005, background): “…was first shown by Ruschel et al. (1975) using 15N2 and later by long-term N balance and 15N2 isotope dilution technique, some sugarcane varieties have been found to derive up to 70% of their nitrogen requirement through biological nitrogen fixation (Urquiaga et al. 1992; Boddey et al. 2001).”
• Agricultural uses of plant biostimulants (2014, unknown): “2 0 0 1 ) , Herbaspirillum spp. (Pimentel et al. 1991), and Gluconoacebacter diazotrophicus (Boddey et al. 2001).”
• Endophytic nitrogen fixation in sugarcane: present knowledge and future applications (2003, background): “In a recent study at Embrapa Agrobiologia, we outlined some strategies to overcome some of these problems (Boddey et al., 2001).”
• Global inputs of biological nitrogen fixation in agricultural systems (2008, background): “Boddey et al. (2001) reported a second study to quantify N2 fixation in 11 commercial crops of sugar cane in Brazil, also using 15N natural abundance.”
• Two seasons’ study on nifH gene expression and nitrogen fixation by diazotrophic endophytes in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids): expression of nifH genes similar to those of rhizobia (2010, methodology): “…percent contribution of nitrogen derived from air (%Ndfa) in field-grown sugarcane plants varied from zero to 70% in Brazil (Yoneyama et al. 1997; Boddey et al. 2001), the Philippines, and Miyako Island (Japan) (Yoneyama et al. 1997), but was negligible in Australia (Biggs et al. 2002) and South…”
• Non-symbiotic bacterial diazotrophs in crop-farming systems : can their potential for plant growth promotion be better exploited? (2004, methodology): “The 15 N natural abundance technique established that the BNF contributes up to 60% of the total assimilated N by sugarcane varieties not receiving fertiliser-N (Boddey et al., 2001).”
• Acquisition of phosphorus and nitrogen in the rhizosphere and plant growth promotion by microorganisms (2009, background): “…15N natural abundance and 15N dilution studies, performed in either pot experiments or in the field, have provided clear evidence of the ability of endophytic N2-fixing bacteria to supply significant inputs of nitrogen to some grasses and cereals (Boddey et al. 2001; Oliveira et al. 2002).”
• Nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with leguminous and non-leguminous plants (2009, methodology): “Instead, a common method is based on differences in the natural abundance of 15N contained in mineral sources of nitrogen compared to atmospheric nitrogen (Boddey et al. 2000; 2001).”
• Legumes in the reclamation of marginal soils, from cultivar and inoculant selection to transgenic approaches (2011, background): “Sugar cane is a good example of a crop that can benefit from nitrogen fixation (Boddey et al. 2001, 2003).”