Investigation of Effects of Bio Fertilizer Application on Zinc uptake and Some of Vegetative Growth Indices of Corn (Zea Mays L.) in a Non-Sterile Calcareous Soil with Different Levels of Salinity

Salinity affects plant growth by decreasing the water and nutrients uptakes and disturbing the nutritional balance of plants. To investigate the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on Zinc (Zn) uptake and some of growth indices of Corn (Zea Mays L.) at different soil salinity levels, a factorial experiment as completely randomized design with 3 replications was conducted in greenhouse of Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran. Factors included three salinity levels (0 (S1), 15(S1) and 30 (S2) Meq salt kg-1 soil) and microbial inoculation (without inoculation (C), Glumus Intradices (F), Pesudomonas bacteria (B) and fungi bacteria (BF)). The results showed that dry matter of shoot and root, root colonization percentage, stem diameter, plant height, leaf area and chlorophyll index were significantly reduced by increasing of salinity levels from S0 to S2. Using all microbial treatments resulted in increasing of all the above mentioned growth indices at all salinity levels significantly. Generally, the use of fungi and fungi-bacterial treatments in enhancement of growth indices of plant were higher than bacterial treatment alone. Zn concentration in shoot and root was increased by increasing of salinity levels while Zn uptakes were significantly decreased. Also, Zn concentration and uptakes in shoot and root were significantly increased by application of all microbial treatments compared to control and the higher increase was related to fungi-bacterial treatment and the lowest increase observed in bacterial treatment.