VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIENAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY _______________ NGUYEN BICH NGOC INVESTIGATION OF DROUGHT EFFECTS ON PLANT GROWTH AND RHIZOSPHERE MICROBIOTA IN SOYBEAN UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE CONTEXT MASTER'S THESIS VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIENAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY _______________ NGUYEN BICH NGOC INVESTIGATION OF DROUGHT EFFECTS ON PLANT GROWTH AND RHIZOSPHERE MICROBIOTA IN SOYBEAN UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE CONTEXT MAJOR: CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT CODE: RESEARCH SUPERVISORS: 1. HOANG THI THU DUYEN 3. KHUONG THI THU HUONG Hanoi, 2022 PLEDGE I assure that this thesis is original and has not been published. The use of results of other research and other documents must comply with regulations.
The citations and references to documents, books, research papers, and websites must be in the list of references of the thesis. I have read and understood the plagiarism violations. I pledge with personal honor that this research result is my own and does not violate the Regulation on prevention of plagiarism in academic and scientific research activities at VNU Vietnam Japan University (Issued together with Decision No 700/QD-ĐHVN dated 30/9/2021 by the Rector of Vietnam Japan University). Author of the thesis Nguyen Bich Ngoc ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Overall, I would like to thank my friends, the lecturers and staff at the MCCD-VJU- VNU, for this higher education experience, leading to the completion of this thesis.
My appreciation also goes to my two highly dedicated supervisors, Dr. Khuong Thi Thu Huong and especially Dr. Hoang Thi Thu Duyen, for their immense support in every way possible during my time doing this thesis, from formulating the research questions and methodology, collecting soil and seed samples, setting up the experiment, to processing and analysing data. I would like to acknowledge those who have helped me with the experiment process when I couldn’t be present at the laboratory, as well as MCCD lecturers and the reviewers of my thesis for their advice and constructive feedback.
My thesis was sponsored by the NAFOSTED research project titled “Assessment on microbial enzyme distribution and pH zoning in the rhizosphere, identifying the mechanism of carbon and nutrient metabolism in the rhizosphere under drought conditions– Code: 105. The thesis also used materials provided by project number KCB-TS.06 of the program KCB-TS under collaboration between the Soil and Fertilizers Research Institute and Centre of Marine Environmental Monitoring and Analysis. This has been quite a journey that I would have messily suffered through without the from-strangers-to-friends I have made along the way out of the sensei-gata and my schoolmates. Therefore, my genuine words of affection are directed at them, for making my time here in VJU more than just an academic experience, and for making me a better person in life by casually lending me sympathetic ears and putting up with my episodes.
Finally, I dedicate this thesis to my family, though it is highly unlikely that they would ever come to know about its existence. For mom and dad; although it was not all pretty, they tried their best. My sincerest gratitude goes to all of the above-mentioned. And to myself, a struggling student coming from a social background to storm into all of this, a pat well done! TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES.
i LIST OF FIGURES. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. Climate change, drought, and food security linkage in the world and Red River Delta, Viet Nam.
Impact of drought on soil microbial activities and plant growth. Plant nutrient demands and impacts of NPK fertilisers on soil microbial activities and plant growth. Necessity of the research: Filling the scientific knowledge gap. Research questions and hypotheses.
Research object and scope. Research conceptual framework.12 CHAPTER 2 MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGIES. Trend analysis of hydro-meteorological data. Experiment design of drought and NPK fertiliser on soybean plant and soil samples.
Measurements and analyses .20 CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Weather and climate change in Thai Binh province, Red River Delta, Viet Nam. Drought and NPK fertiliser impacts rhizosphere microbial activities. Microbial biomass phosphorus.
Enzyme activities of β-glucosidase and acid phosphatase. Relationship between microbial biomass and enzyme activities. Soybean growth characteristics change under drought effects and addition of NPK fertiliser .41 CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .56 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Research questions and hypotheses.
Properties of the collected soil samples. Parameters of interest and their respective methodology of measurement. Monthly average temperature, total precipitation and relative humidity in Thai Binh province, from 2010 to 2021. Annual average temperature, total precipitation and average humidity in Thai Binh province, from 2010 to 2021.
Monthly average temperature, total precipitation and relative humidity in Thai Binh province in 2021. Change in average temperature (T) and total precipitation (R) in 61 years from 1958 to 2018 in Northern Delta by the season. Research questions and hypotheses, compared with findings .44 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of plants to drought stress.
Schematic representation of the impact of drought stress on microbial communities and activities. Research conceptual framework. Soil sampling location. Illustration of the experiment design.
Average monitored WHC of samples under drought treatment. Monthly average temperature & total precipitation in Thai Binh province, 2010-2021. Monthly average temperature & total precipitation in Thai Binh province in 2021. Annual average temperature in Thai Binh province,.
Annual total precipitation in Thai Binh province, 2010-2021. Annual average relative humidity in Thai Binh province, 2010-2021. Change in annual average temperature and total precipitation across Viet Nam, 1958-2018. Change in the number of hot days under RCP4.
Change in the number of hot days under RCP8. Change in the number of drought months during dry season at the end of 21st century. Mean Microbial biomass phosphorus under optimal and drought condition, with and without addition of fertiliser. β-glucosidase enzyme activity under optimal and drought condition, with and without addition of fertiliser.
Acid phosphatase enzyme activity under optimal and drought condition, with and without addition of fertiliser. Flow diagram of a simple enzyme-based decomposition model. Microbial biomass phosphorus and Acid phosphatase enzyme activity under optimal and drought condition, with and without addition of fertiliser. Mean Root/Shoot length under optimal and drought condition, with and without addition of fertiliser.42 ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AEM Anion exchange membrane AP Acid phosphatase C Carbon GLU β-glucosidase IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change K Potassium MONRE Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment MRD Mekong River Delta N Nitrogen OC Organic Carbon P Phosphorus RCP Representative Concentration Pathway RRD Red River Delta WHC Water holding capacity iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Climate change, drought, and food security linkage in the world and Red River Delta, Viet Nam It has been now widely acknowledged that negative environmental change, including human-induced climate change, is one of the most alarming development issues modern humans have faced, both a crisis and a crisis multiplier itself (UNSC, 2021). According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2021) in their latest 6th Assessment reports (AR6), the global surface temperature in the recent decade of 2011-2020 has risen by nearly 1.1oC compared to the pre-industrial level (1850-1900). While climate change is by now should be a fact, the link between climate change and natural disasters was, for a while, a complicated matter; yet this human-induced climate change has arguably caused many weather and climate extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and typhoons, around the world (IPCC, 2021, 2022). As climate change continues to exacerbate, these natural hazards are predicted to be more frequent and intense.
Since water is unquestionably vital for plant growth (Lambers & Oliveira, 2019), drought, made more frequent and severe by human-induced climate change, is one of the major individual abiotic stresses that severely affect the distribution and productivity of crop plants (P. IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (2019) warned against increasing aridity of land areas resulting in desertification along with land degradation due to climate change; this was reaffirmed by the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Reports, for example of WGII on Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (2022). The projected decline in soil moisture under all emissions scenarios (IPCC, 2021) can further enhance aridity through land surface temperature-relative humidity-precipitatio feedbacks. Increasing temperature alone can enhance the evapotranspiration process of land surface and depletion of soil moisture; coupled with the change in precipitation and precipitation variability, they result in water stress for plants in decreases in crop 1 yield (IPCC, 2019, 2021, 2022).
Regarding this, IPCC (2019, 2022) reported that the tropics and subtropics regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America would be particularly vulnerable. This decline in agricultural land and crop yield in turn impacts the livelihood of farmers and both regional and global food security in general, in terms of availability alone, to feed the ever expanding human population (FAO, 2017, 2018; IPCC, 2019, 2022; Turral et al. Amid these global changes, farmers must make agronomic improvements to increase productivity and cope with the negative impacts of climate change. Viet Nam is one of the countries highly vulnerable to climate change (MONRE, 2008, 2021a) with a significant agricultural sector that is inherently sensitive to climate change regardless of rainfed or irrigated cultivation (MONRE; 2021a).
Specifically, the two low-lying sub-regions of Mekong River Delta (MRD) and Red River Delta (RRD) serving as the two main agricultural fields in Viet Nam (GSO, 2021) are considered to the be two most vulnerable sub-regions to climate change (MONRE, 2021a). Red River Delta of Viet Nam is located in a sub-tropical monsoon region with 2 distinct seasons: rainy season from May to October and dry season from November to April (MONRE, 2021a). In the latest report on Climate change scenarios for Viet Nam by (MONRE, 2021b), the average temperature has increased by 0.89oC in the 1958- 2018 period, and specifically by 0.74oC in the period after Doi Moi from 1986 to 2018. While climate change scenarios for Viet Nam (MONRE, 2021b) suggested increases in both annual average temperature and precipitation for both sub-regions, they also projected greater intra- and inter-annual variability, leading to increased risks in both unlikely floods and drought.
Notably, the report also indicated the increase in the number of drought months in Northern Viet Nam, with the highest increase in the Northern Delta. Thai Binh province delta was established from sedimentation the of Hong-Thai Binh province river basin thousands of years ago. This basin also pra ovides major source of irrigation water for Thai Binh delta. However, recent studies such as Cuong, et al.
(2019) and Nong et al. (2021) warned about drought manifestation as a result of climate change in this delta. Thai Binh province is a coastal 2 province belonging to the Red River Delta, wan ith annual average temperature at 24±0.5⁰C, total precipitation at 1600±100mm, and average relative humidity at 85±1% (analysis from hydro-meteorological data retrieved from Thai Binh province weather station, Northern Delta hydro-meteorological station. Among the crops, soybean can be considered a major multi-purpose short-term crop plant around the world and in Viet Nam as well, aside from rice and maize.
Beyond being a primary and economical source of vegetable protein and oil for human consumption, its usage also extends to the energy sector as biofuel and to livestock and aquaculture as feed. Furthermore, soybean is also known for its ability to improve soil quality (Phạm Thị Xuân et al. Soybean is widely grown across every sub- region in Viet Nam due toitse suitability to environmental conditions (Viet Nam Academy of Agriculture Sciences, 2009), especially in RRD (IAS, 2019). Winter- spring season in the Red Red River delta, however, collides with the dry season when droughts usually happen (Cuong et al., 2019; DCSVN, 2014; Kim Nhuệ, 2017; Lan et al., 2015; Overland, 2010; Tien Phong, 2017; UNW-DPC, 2014); yet soybean is susceptible to drought stress (Basal & Szabó, 2020; Wei et al., 2018), particularly during vegetative and reproductive stages (Kunert et al.