Improving microbial properties in Psamments with mycorrhizal fungi, amendments, and fertilizer

Abstract

Psamments is sandy soil with a texture class of fine loamy sand or coarser in all layers, deposited sands such as dunes in beach lands with low soil biological fertility. Adding mycorrhizal, soil amendments, and inorganic fertilizers could improve soil fertility. This research aimed to investigate the effect of mycorrhizal, soil amendments, and inorganic fertilizers on soil organic carbon (SOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP), and root infections in Psamments. This research was a pot experimental in screenhouse, arranged in a factorial completely randomized design with three factors: three of mycorrhizal doses, M0 = 0 spore pot-1, M1 = 3 spores pot-1 and M2 = 6 spores pot-1; three types of soil amendments, P0 = non amendment, P1 = cow dung 60 t ha-1, P2 = rice husk biochar (RHB) 25 t ha-1; and two doses of inorganic fertilizer, A0 = 0 kg ha-1, A1 = 100 kg ha-1 NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer, replied three times. The results showed that mycorrhizal combination with RHB and inorganic fertilizer increased MBC up to 23 times than control. The combination of mycorrhizal-cow dung-inorganic fertilizer was the highest of total-GRSP (4.4 times) and mycorrhizal dose 6 spores pot-1 with both amendments and inorganic fertilizer increase root infection up to 90%. It was proven that mycorrhizal with soil amendments and inorganic fertilizers could improve the microbial properties of Psamments.