Combined effect of gallic acid and zinc ferrite nanoparticles on wheat growth and yield under salinity stress.

Salinity stress significantly impacts crops, disrupting their water balance and nutrient uptake, reducing growth, yield, and overall plant health. High salinity in soil can adversely affect plants by disrupting their water balance. Excessive salt levels can lead to dehydration, hinder nutrient absorption, and damage plant cells, ultimately impairing growth and reducing crop yields. Gallic acid (GA) and zinc ferrite (ZnFNP) can effectively overcome this problem. GA can promote root growth, boost photosynthesis, and help plants absorb nutrients efficiently. However, their combined application as an amendment against drought still needs scientific justification. Zinc ferrite nanoparticles possess many beneficial properties for soil remediation and medical applications. That's why the current study used a combination of GA and ZnFNP as amendments to wheat. There were 4 treatments, i.e., 0, 10 µM GA, 15 µM GA, and 20 µM GA, without and with 5 µM ZnFNP applied in 4 replications following a completely randomized design. Results exhibited that 20 µM GA + 5 µM ZnFNP caused significant improvement in wheat shoot length (28.62%), shoot fresh weight (16.52%), shoot dry weight (11.38%), root length (3.64%), root fresh weight (14.72%), and root dry weight (9.71%) in contrast to the control. Significant enrichment in wheat chlorophyll a (19.76%), chlorophyll b (25.16%), total chlorophyll (21.35%), photosynthetic rate (12.72%), transpiration rate (10.09%), and stomatal conductance (15.25%) over the control validate the potential of 20 µM GA + 5 µM ZnFNP. Furthermore, improvement in N, P, and K concentration in grain and shoot verified the effective functioning of 20 µM GA + 5 µM ZnFNP compared to control. In conclusion, 20 µM GA + 5 µM ZnFNP can potentially improve the growth, chlorophyll contents and gas exchange attributes of wheat cultivated in salinity stress. More investigations are suggested to declare 20 µM GA + 5 µM ZnFNP as the best amendment for alleviating salinity stress in different cereal crops.

Determining the Effects of Compost Substitution on Carbon Sequestration, Greenhouse Gas Emission, Soil Microbial Community Changes, and Crop Yield in a Wheat Field.

Compost produced by straw and livestock and poultry manure under the action of micro-organisms is one of the main forms of organic alternative fertilizers at present. The present study explored the effects of compost substitution on soil greenhouse gas emissions, soil microbial community changes, and wheat yield to determine the best substitution ratio for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and soil microbial community changes and increasing wheat yield. Using the single-factor randomized block trial design, four treatments were employed, the characteristics of greenhouse gas emission, yield and yield components, and the changes of soil microbial community under different compost substitution ratio in the whole wheat growing season were determined by static box-gas chromatography. During the wheat season, both CO2 and N2O emissions were reduced, whereas CH4 emission was increased. That all treatments reduced the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Greenhouse gas emission intensity (GHGI) in wheat season compared with T0. Compost substitution can alleviate the global warming potential to some extent. Under the condition of compost substitution, the wheat yield under T2 and T3 increased significantly compared with that under the control; however, the spike number and 1000-grain weight did not differ significantly among the treatments. When compost replacement was 30%, the yield was the highest. Under different ratios of compost substitution, the microbial communities mainly comprised Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Patescibacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, and Verrucomicrobia. The soil microbial community structure differed mainly due to the difference in the compost substitution ratio and was clustered into different groups. In conclusion, to achieve high wheat yield and low greenhouse gas emissions, compost replacement of 30% is the most reasonable means for soil improvement and fertilization.