What is the role of Azolla?

What is the role of Azolla?

Azolla possesses the desired qualities of a green manure crop, like quick growth, large biomass production, higher nitrogen content and easy decomposability in the soil. It has been further demonstrated that Azolla is a good source of potassium when applied to soils.

How does Azolla help the environment?

Azolla took advantage of the abundant nitrogen and carbon dioxide, two of its favorite foods, and flourished. When rainfall increased from the changing climate, flooding provided a thin layer of fresh water for Azolla to creep outward, over parts of the surrounding continents.

How does Azolla fix nitrogen?

Azolla like many species of legumes, harbors a symbiotic microorganism capable of reducing atmospheric nitrogen and supplying this fixed nitrogen to the higher plant. The prokaryote associated with Azolla is a blue-green alga (Anabaena azollae) which is able to photosynthesize independently.

Does Azolla produce nitrogen?

1980), the People’s Republic of China has 3.2 million acres of rice paddies planted with Azolla. This provides at least 100,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer per year worth more than $50 million annually.

How do ferns help the Earth?

Their fossils have gone on to make important fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Ferns can also uptake heavy metals from the soil and aid in healing contaminated environments. Ferns have many uses today that people don’t really think about as well. Some animals use ferns as a source of food.

Does Azolla oxygenate water?

Krock et al. (1991) found that an azolla cover significantly reduced the total amount of weeds, particularly the predominant weed Monochoria vaginalis. The azolla cover reduced light intensity by about 90%, reducing photosynthesis in the floodwater and thus reducing oxygen concentration of the water by more than 50%.

Is Azolla a water fern?

Azolla is a free-floating water fern and has agronomic importance due to its ability to fix nitrogen (Singh 1977). It forms a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae, which is present in the leaf cavity of the fern (Watanabe 1982, spore 1992).

Does Azolla produce oxygen?

Azolla with a higher photosynthetic capacity (Wagner 1997) might release sufficient oxygen into the standing water and soil (Bharati et al.

What is the economic importance of azolla?

Economic importance includes Salvinia species used as cultivated ornamentals (some species are weeds of water bodies) and use of Azolla to control mosquitoes (by covering the water surface), as animal fodder, and as a “seeded” addition to rice paddies, enhancing rice growth by release of nitrogens from symbiotic …

How is azolla used as Biofertilizer?

Azolla consists of cyanobacteria which are used as a biofertilizer. The cyanobacteria produce a range of toxins which are dangerous for the human and animals are known as cyanotoxins. It contributes nitrogen up to 60 kg and enriches the soil with organic matter.