Algae and Bioguano as promising source of organic fertilizers
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Algae and Bioguano as promising source of organic fertilizers Giulia Atzori 1 & Werther Guidi Nissim 1 & Liliana Rodolfi 1,2 Mario R. Tredici 1
&
Alberto Niccolai 1 & Natascia Biondi 1 & Stefano Mancuso 1 &
Received: 28 March 2020 / Revised and accepted: 14 September 2020 / Published online: 29 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The projected population growth implies an increased food demand with a severe impact on Earth’s natural resources. Improving crops yield without compromising the environment will be one of the main challenges of the next decades. Among the practices that can promote sustainable agriculture, organic fertilizers, and seaweeds in particular, are receiving growing attention. The aim of the current study was to test two macroalgae (Chaetomorpha sp. and Cystoseira sp.), one microalga (Chlorella CH2) and Bioguano (a mixture of macroalgae, spirulina, and guano) as organic fertilizers for the growth of barley seedlings. Remarkable plant growth was obtained on Bioguano, with seedlings showing a comparable total biomass yield with respect to the positive control plants on mineral fertilizer. Plants growth on macroalgae was reduced, even if in Chaetomorpha sp. not significantly compared to the positive control. Plants growth on Chlorella CH2 was close to that of the negative control (only water). Plants on Bioguano attained high uptake efficiencies of N (60%) and K (41%). Plants on macroalgae showed high N, and especially P (about 30%) uptake efficiency. Our results suggest a high potential for Bioguano and, to a lesser extent, for macroalgae without any synthetic fertilizer application to be used as growing substrates for crops. Keywords Biofertilizers . Chlorophyta . Phaeophyta . Chaetomorpha . Cystoseira . Chlorella . Bioguano . Barley
Introduction Projected population growth will lead to an increase in the global food demand in the next years (Calicioglu et al. 2019). Such increase, along with the climate change effects, will have a severe impact on the Earth’s natural resources (FAO 2017). Agriculture, among the main users of natural resources, is already responsible for about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions, the use of synthetic fertilizers being one of the main causes (FAO 2016, 2017). Chemical fertilizers allowed a doubling in food production after their massive introduction with the Green Revolution, increasing the global per capita food availability, reducing hunger and improving nutrition (Tilman et al. 2002). In fact, more than a
* Liliana Rodolfi [email protected] 1
Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Florence, Italy
2
Fotosintetica & Microbiologica S.r.l., Via di Santo Spirito 14, 50125 Florence, Italy
quarter of the world population over the past century is estimated to have been fed by synthetic nitrogen fertilizers (Ramankutty et al. 2018). Nevertheless, fertilizers have severe detrimental impacts on the environment, with on top of all the degradation of water quality (Foley
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