Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Spores Lab Report

Occurrence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Spores in Soils of Some Legumes and Their Response to Varying Concentration of Phosphorus Application

Abstract
An experiment was undertaken to investigate the occurrence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in the soil of five leguminous plants: Cajanus cajan, Centrosema pascurum, Crotolatia ochroleuca, Lablab purpurens and Mucuna pruriens. The effects of soil treatments with varying phosphorus concentrations, on the population of AM spores under these legumes were carried out, in a potted experiment at the screen house of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin. The AM spores in soil samples were extracted using a wet sieving and decanting method and enumerated with the aid of a stereoscopic microscope.
The design of experiment was 5*3 factorial experiment in Randomised Complete Block Design made up of five legumes{Cajanus Cajan, Centrosema pascuorum, Crotolaria ochroleuca, Lablab purpurens and Mucuna Pruriens}, three phosphorus level {0, 0.5g and 1.0g SSP per pot} and two replicates. The same quantity of soil were collected from the different pots with aid of small hoe blade and transferred to the laboratory in well labeled polythene bags.
3.2 DETERMINATION OF SOIL pH The pH of the soil samples were termined with a model 292 MK2 pH meter. Ten grams of each of air dried soil sample which has been passed through 2mm sieve was mixed with 20ml of distilled water in a specimen bottle and was left overnight. The electrode of the pH meter was inserted into the soil suspensions and pH readings for each soil sample were
The productivity of these soils is generally low in most of the existing farming system. These soil problems have necessitated the intensification of research in this geographical zone. These include research into biological nitrogen fixing systems as an alternative to chemically produced fertilizer. Certain leguminous plants are presently being considered for integration into southern Guinea savanna by a team of scientist. A recent investigation by Adesida (2009) has established the occurrence of spores of the VAM fungi under such leguminous plants in the research plots of IITA-NARS located on the University of Ilorin Teaching and Research Farm. There is however the need to obtain more information on occurrence and distribution of spores of different AM species.The objectives of this research are therefore; To further investigate the occurrence of AM spore in soil of Southern Guinea Savanna under the following crops;Cajanus Cajan, Centrosema pascuorum, Crotolaria ochroleuca, Lablab purpurens, Mucuna pruriens, and to investigate the influence of soil treatment with varying phosphorus concentrations on distribution of VAM