Summary
A dry season field experiment conducted for two consecutive years highlighted problems of achieving increased populations of N2-fixing blue-green algae (BGA) in wetland rice fields. Inoculation of non-indigenous BGA strains, either dried or as fresh viable inocula even at high levels of application, was unsuccessful. A limiting effect of grazing invertebrate populations on BGA establishment was evident, but other factors were involved. Reducing grazer pressure did not permit establishment of inoculated BGA; interspecific competition and environmental factors may explain the inoculation failure. Grazer regulation permitted the establishment of a fast-growing indigenous N2-fixing Anabaena and the doubling of N2-fixing activity over a control. Neither inoculation nor grazer control affected grain yields significantly.
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Grant, I.F., Roger, P.A. & Watanabe, I. Effect of grazer regulation and algal inoculation on photodependent nitrogen fixation in a wetland rice field. Biol Fert Soils 1, 61–72 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00255132
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00255132