New generation post-emergence herbicides and their impact on arbuscular mycorrhizae fungal association in rice

To prevent weed invasion in direct seeded rice cultivation, several new generation post emergence herbicides viz. bispyribac sodium, flucetosulfuron, ethoxysulfuron, fenoxaprop-p ethyl, penoxsulam, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron and cyhalofop‑butyl plus penoxsulam are widely used in sub-tropical rice ecosystems of Eastern India. The main objective of this study was to know whether application of above listed post emergence herbicides at recommended (n1) and double recommended dose (n2) has any negative impact on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) association in rice plants. Further, the effects of herbicides on soil microbial properties viz. microbial biomass carbon (MBC), fluroscein diacetate (FDA), dehydrogenase (DHA), acid phosphatase (AcP) and alkaline phosphatase (AkP) activities were analyzed using unsupervised and supervised learning methods. Results indicated that among different herbicides evaluated only application of penoxsulam significantly (p<0.05) reduced the AMF root colonization (58.0%) at recommended dose (n1) compared to only AMF (70.3%) application. Whereas, application of bispyribac sodium (both n1 and n2 dose) enhanced AMF sporulation (1100 spores/100 g) and root colonization (86.68%) compared to other herbicides application. Unsupervised learning approaches through PCA found that application of bispyribac sodium enhanced both above ground plant growth responses and soil microbial properties, but penoxsulam had negative impact. But, the combined application of penoxsulam and cyhalofop‑butyl did not show any negative impact on AMF association in rice plants. This study concluded that selection of right type of post-emergence herbicides are very important to minimize the harmful effect or enhance AMF association in rice plants.