Marine and fungal biostimulants improve grain yield, nitrogen absorption and allocation in durum wheat plants
E. Laurent, Nawel Ahmed, Céline Durieu, Philippe Grieu, Thierry Lamaze
Abstract
Abstract Durum wheat culture requires a high level of N fertilization to achieve ideal protein concentration for semolina and pasta quality, contributing to N losses. Optimizing plant N use efficiency could improve agro-environmental balance. In the current paper, we studied the impact of the marine (DPI4913) and fungal (AF086) extracts (biostimulants) applied on leaves on growth, N absorption and N fluxes in durum wheat in field and greenhouse experiments. In the field, 15 NO 3 − and 15 NH 4 + were injected into the soil; in the greenhouse, N of the flag-leaf was labelled with 15 NH 4 + . Flag-leaf senescence was studied by estimating leaf chlorophyll concentration. In greenhouse, biostimulants increased grain yield, total N in plant and the proportion of plant N in ears. When water was limited in greenhouse experiment, neither biostimulants had any effect. In the field, DPI4913 increased soil fertilizer-derived 15 N accumulated in grains. In the greenhouse, biostimulants increased the proportion of 15 N applied to the flag-leaf recovered in grains and accelerated leaf senescence. For plants treated with biostimulants, flag-leaf N resorption increased. Biostimulants had a larger positive impact on mineral N root uptake than on N remobilization. In conclusion, our study has shown that DPI4913 and AF086 can promote plant growth and grain yield, N uptake and remobilization. Thus, these biostimulants could be used to optimize durum wheat N fertilization and contribute to reduced N losses.