Influence of Arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi on morphological characteristics of Cerasus Mahaleb L. one year old seedlings under drought stress

Rainfall reduction and dehydration are important features of the Zagros forests. One of the most sustainable, and suitable ways to restore, and enrich these forests is the use of native, and multipurpose species such as Cerasus mahaleb L.. This study was conducted as a factorial randomized complete block design at Isfahan Agricultural, and Natural Resources Research Center from winter to spring of 2018. The first factor included four levels of drought stress (100, 75, 50, and 25% of field capacity), and the second factor was three levels of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi without mycorrhizal fungi (control), Rhizophagus irregularis, and Funneliformis mosseae in four replications on fungal colonization, and traits of the morphological characteristics of one-year-old seedlings of C. mahale L. in greenhouse conditions. The results showed that with increasing drought stress; height, collar diameter, number of branches, and leaves, root, and shoot dry weight, fungal colonization percentage, and leaf area of C. mahaleb seedlings were significantly reduced (p≤1%), however, both fungi were able to improve most of the studied traits. At 100% field capacity, fungal colonization increased from 32.1% in control to 47.27% in inoculation with F. mosseae, and 43.2% in inoculation with R. irregularis (p≤5%). Due to inoculation with F. mosseae fungi, the seedlings main root length in different drought stress treatments, compared to the control, showed an increasing trend, and the maximum root length (42 cm) in the conditions FC50% stress was obtained. The largest size of the surface, and the number of leaves, the height, and diameter of the seedlings were observed in conditions without drought stress (FC100%). According to the results of this study, in the seedling period, C. mahaleb can be considered as a relatively drought tolerant species.