Biofertilizer Potentials of Cellulolytic Nitrogen-Fixing and Phosphate-Solubilizing Bacteria

This book provides information on the population dynamics and occurrence of three types of functional bacteria, the cellulolytic, nitrogen-fixers and phosphate-solubilizers, in tropical rehabilitated forest soils and their potential agronomic significance in acid tropical soil. It also discusses how these groups of functional bacteria could serve as indicators of the rehabilitation status of degraded soils in tropical regenerated forests along with assessment of selected soil physico-chemical properties in order to understand how they are related and contribute to the dynamics of forest soil ecology. The significance of these three groups of functional bacteria and their occurence in tropical forest soils, their functioning mechanisms as well as their plant-beneficial properties and agricultural appications have been reviewed in this book. Further, this book presents a number of experiments which evaluated the plant growth-promoting potential of selected functional bacteria to be incorporated as bio-fertilizers in integrated nutrient management applications for crop production in a feasible way. This book will be of great benefit to agronomists, soil scientists, environmentalists, research scientists, foresters, farmers, students, bio-fertilizer makers and others. (author)