Monitoring the dynamics of the spore bank of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is essential for the sustainable management and protection of agroecosystems. The most common method for extracting AMF spores from soil is the wet-sieving technique (WST). However, this method has many disadvantages. In this study, we modified the WST using new approaches: the ultrasound wet-sieving technique (UWST) and the ultrasound centrifuge technique (UCT). We enumerated and compared the numbers and quality of spores obtained from WST, UWST, and UCT to validate the new modified techniques. We extracted AMF spores from the rhizospheres of different plants, including wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), pepper (Piper nigrum L.), parsley (Petroselinum crispum Mill.), and turfgrass (Lolium perenne L.) collected from the Van Lake basin, Turkey. The highest and lowest AMF spore numbers were observed in wheat and turfgrass rhizospheres. The UCT allowed for the extraction of the highest number of spores from all rhizospheres, followed by the UWST and WST. The UWST and WST allowed for the extraction of similar spore numbers from wheat, pepper, parsley, and turfgrass rhizospheres. Beyond the high extracted spore number, UCT was shown to be a fast and low-material-consuming approach. These findings demonstrate that the UCT can be used to efficiently extract AMF spores in future research.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production is constantly threatened by several fungal pathogens, such as Alternaria solani, the causal agent of early blight disease. In this study, a greenhouse experiment was set up to evaluate the biocontrol ability of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) against A. solani in the presence of reduced doses of fungicides (i.e., captan and copper oxychloride). Disease severity, plant growth traits, chlorophyll and phosphorus content, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activity were assessed. The effects of fungicide dose on AMF were investigated by root colonization, spore density, and mycorrhizal dependence evaluation. AMF-inoculated and fungicide-treated plants reduced disease severity compared to fungicide-treated and non-mycorrhizal plants, in most cases, regardless of the fungicide dose. AMF improved plant growth, especially when combined with copper oxychloride. However, plant fresh weight decreased in plants treated with the lowest dose of captan (25 g 100 L⁻¹). Overall, AMF colonization decreased in plants with high fungicide doses, while the leaf color parameters did not show differences between treatments. The results suggest reducing the fungicide dose using AMF is possible, particularly for copper oxychloride. Further studies will be required to confirm these data. This integrated approach could offer a sustainable alternative to decrease the use of chemical control.

The effectiveness of Clonostachys rosea against Verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae) and early blight (Alternaria solani) diseases, as the two most important problems in tomato cultivation with significant economic losses, was determined. It was determined that C. rosea was effective on A. solani and V. dahliae and suppressed mycelial growth. Also, the C. rosea on wheat grains inoculated to plants at 20 g, 30 g, and 40 g concentrations before and after pathogens inoculation. Then, fungal discs (2 mm in diameter) from V. dahliae growing colonies were inoculated on the host plant root zone. A. solani was also inoculated (1x106 conidia ml-1) by spraying the foliar parts of the plants. Results showed that V. dahliae caused 76.0% disease severity in control plants, while the disease severity indices were 58.3%, 55.3%, and 25.3% at 20 g, 30 g, and 40 g C. rosea application, respectively. In A. solani x C. rosea treatments, the disease severities were determined as 96.6%, 63.3%, 43.6% and 46.6% in control, 20 g, 30 g, and 40 g application of C. rosea, respectively. The pathogen suppression rates by C. rosea at 30g application dose was 54.8% against A. solani and at 40 g application dose was 66.6% against V. dahliae. The effects of C. rosea on plant growth parameters were also determined. Results showed that C. rosea had a positive effect on the morphological parameters in tomato plants.

İklim değişikliği, tarımsal ekosistemlerdeki dengeleri bozarak bitki sağlığını, gıda güvenliğini ve ekosistem sürdürülebilirliğini tehdit eden önemli bir çevresel sorun haline gelmiştir. Artan sıcaklık, değişen yağış rejimleri ve aşırı hava olayları, bitki hastalıklarının ve zararlıların yayılma alanlarını genişletirken, bitkilerin abiyotik ve biyotik stres koşullarına karşı direncini zayıflatmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, tarımsal üretimin sürdürülebilirliğini sağlamak ve iklim değişikliğinin etkilerini hafifletmek için yenilikçi bitki koruma stratejilerine ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Makale, bitki koruma yöntemlerini kimyasal, biyolojik ve entegre yaklaşımlar çerçevesinde ele almakta ve biyolojik mücadele ajanlarının, özellikle Arbüsküler mikorizal fungus (AMF) ve Clonostachys rosea gibi mikroorganizmaların, iklim değişikliği koşullarında sağladığı avantajlara odaklanmaktadır. Bu mikroorganizmalar, bitkilerin stres koşullarına adaptasyonunu artırırken, toprak sağlığını iyileştirerek ekosistemlerin karbon sekestrasyon kapasitesine katkı sağlamaktadır. Ayrıca, genetik mühendislik ve hassas tarım teknolojilerinin, dayanıklı bitki çeşitlerinin geliştirilmesi ve zararlıların etkili bir şekilde izlenmesi yoluyla sunduğu yenilikçi çözümler vurgulanmaktadır. Sonuç olarak, iklim değişikliği ile mücadelede bütüncül bir yaklaşım benimsenmesi gerektiği ifade edilmektedir. Sürdürülebilir tarım uygulamaları, biyolojik çeşitliliğin korunması ve çiftçilerin bu yeniliklere adaptasyonunun sağlanması, tarımsal üretimin geleceği için kritik öneme sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, bitki koruma stratejilerinin yeniden yapılandırılmasına yönelik öneriler sunularak, tarımın iklim değişikliğine uyum sağlaması ve gıda güvenliğinin korunması için etkili çözümler tartışılmaktadır.