This undergraduate research project was taken on by A. Bogle, myself, S. Kelty, T. Ram, and Dr. O. Kopp professor of Plant Physiology at Utah Valley University.
Salinity is a limiting factor in crop land viability for agriculture. Changing aspects of the soil of non-arable land, including the biota of the rhizosphere, influences the amount of land that can be used to grow crops. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi Rhizophagus irregularis on the salinity tolerance of Spinacia oleracea. Seeds of Spinacia oleracea (S. oleracea) were grown in specified salinity solutions to test the control germination rates. The controlled germination (saline 0.0 dS/m condition) seedlings were then inoculated with Rhizophagus irregularis (R. irregularis). From this study salt stress resulted in lower germination rates in the tested non-inoculated S. oleracea seeds. The findings of the project indicate that inoculation of S. oleracea with R. irregularis is statistically effective for increasing leaf biomass at relatively high soil salinity (17.1 dS/m). These positive results were not replicated at lower salinities where the p-values were not statistically significant to support an increase in leaf biomass when inoculated. This research is novel because S. oleracea has not been tested for AM association impacts on saline tolerance yet and can be applied to saline agricultural output.
This poster is available through Utah Valley University Fulton Library where it is archived. Unpublished
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge Trevor Ram and Dr. Islam for extensive working with us on the statistical analysis of this research, especially the germination analysis. We would also like to acknowledge Sam Doty for his insight on growing methods and initial set-up of the experiment. Of course, appreciation goes to Dr. Kopp for her guidance. A special thank you to The College of Science Scholarly Activities Committee for the funding of this research.