Effects of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae on the drought resistance of wild jujube (Zizyphs spinosus Hu) seedlings

Abstract

The current study explored the effects of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) inoculation on the growth and water requirement of pot-grown wild jujube (Zizyphs spinosus Hu). Three water regimes (20%, 40% and 60% of soil water content) were conducted. The VAM inoculation could significantly increase plant growth (including plant height, leaf area, and fresh and dry mass), enhance relative leaf water content, photosynthetic rates, transpiration rates and stomatal conductance, and improve plant drought tolerance. The water consumption of the mycorrhizal plants producing 1 g of dry matter was 18.7%–26.6% lower than the consumption of non-mycorrhizal plants grown under the same soil water content conditions.