Volume 65 (2019): Edition 4 (December 2019)

The experimental activity was conducted at the Institute of Forage Crops (Pleven) during the period 2016 – 2018. The adaptive ability of 10 broad bean accessions was determined with respect to main quantitative traits based on parametric and nonparametric analysis. The environment influences to the highest degree the traits of 1^st pod height, pods number and seed weight per plant. The plant height and seeds number were strongly influenced by the genotype, and the mass of 100 seeds was determined by the genotype × environment interaction. The broad bean accessions can be distributed as follows: Fb 1929 has a high value of the 1^st pod height (34 cm) and is characterized by high plasticity and stability; BGE 029055 and Fb 1896 are stable and form a large number of pods per plant (11 – 15); Fb 1896 and Fb 2486 are distinguished with good adaptability and stability, increased seed weight (28.01 and 30.28 g, respectively) and 100 seeds mass (105.48 g and 91.31 g). Accessions BGE 032012 and Fb 2481 represent a selection value in terms of plant height (61.36 and 65.83 cm); Fb 1929 – in 1^st pod height (32.46 cm); and BGE 029055, Fb 1896 and Fb 2486 – in pods number (10.59, 9.67 and 11.89). Fb 1896, Fb 2486 and BGE 041470 can be used to develop a new genetic diversity in breeding aimed at increasing the mass of 100 seeds and seed productivity.

The composition and structure of rhizosphere bacteriobiome of the husk tomato (Physalis philadelphica Lam.) plants grown on Phaeozem in the open field in West Siberia, Russia (55°15’ NL, 83°31’ EL) were studied using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the V3-V4 hypervariable region of 16S rRNA genes. In total 5898 OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units) were found in the study, representing 20 phyla and 53 identified and 15 non-identified (below the phylum level) classes. The most OTU-rich phyla were Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria, their relative abundance in the total number of sequence reads being 26, 22 and 19%, respectively. Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes and Verrucomicrobia phyla each accounted for 2 ‒ 4%. The rest 14 of the identified phyla were quite negligible, contributing less than 0.5% each. At the OTUs level, the structure was very even and equitable, as only 7 OTUs had relative abundance ranging from 0.5 to 1.1%. The main dominant OTU represented Bradyrhizobiaceae family, implying the importance of nitrogen-fixing bacteria for plant growth and development without any mineral fertilisation. The dominance biodiversity index was very low (0.001), while Shannon index was rather high (7.5). We believe the presented husk tomato rhizosphere bacteriobiome, as the first study using new generation sequencing platform for this species, will help get a better picture of Solanaceae microbiomes in different environments, thus contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of shaping microbial communities by plant roots.

This paper aimed to monitory the dry matter biomass production and carbon stocks of above-and below-ground biomass in five types of grasslands in Slovakia: i) lowland oversowed pasture ii) lowland hay meadows, iii) mesophilous pasture, iv) mountain hay meadows, v) abandoned grassland. Averaged over two cropping seasons the total above-and below-ground biomass differed significantly across the monitored grasslands. It ranged respectively from 2.18 to 7.86 t/ha and from 9.64 to 22.67 t/ha dry matter depending on the pedoclimatic condition and the botanical composition of each grassland type. Consequently, this resulted also in the carbon stocks in above-and below-ground biomass. Generally, the mean carbon stocks were 1.56 t/ha for above-ground biomass (24%) and 4.83 t/ha for below-ground biomass (76%). The botanical composition for all the grassland types was also described. The highest number of plant species (55) was observed in lowland hay meadow located in Slovak Karst, the lowest one (23) for the oversowed grassland located in Eastern Slovak Upland. This monitoring paper showed that semi-natural grassland habitats and improved grasslands as well are an important carbon sink, and they can play a key role in global climate change mitigation.

In this paper, the results of an investigation of the effects of particle-size distribution, soil organic matter content and its parameters on soil sorption capacity are presented and their mutual relationships in sandy soils under long-term fertilisation experiments are determined. Soil samples were taken at the experimental station of Warsaw University of Life Sciences located in Skierniewice, (Poland) in spring 2017. The study included 94- and 41-year-old experiments with mineral fertilisation (no fertilisation, NPK, CaNPK) and 25-year-old experiment with mineral fertilisation + farmyard manure (FYM) in 4-year cycle: FYM, FYM+NPK and FYM+CaNPK. The results show that in the 94-year-old experiment in NPK and CaNPK treatments, hydrolytic acidity (Ha) decreased in comparison with the control by 30% and 88%, respectively, while in 25- and 41-year-old experiments only the application of NPK significantly increased Ha values. The sum of basic cations increased by a factor of 10 at the most in the CaNPK treatment in the 94-year-old experiment. The same effect was also observed in the 25-year-old experiment. On the one hand, the sorption complex gradually became fully saturated as a result of fertilisation in the 94-year-old experiment. On the other hand, in the 25- and 41-year-old experiments, base saturation was substantially reduced. A higher humus stability was an important agent for improving soil sorption capacity in 41- and 94-year old experiments.