Agriculture Commons^™

A Native Cyanobacteria, Nostoc, As A Biofertilizer, Clarice Esch

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The native cyanobacteria, Nostoc, is found throughout much of the US and has a cosmopolitan distribution. It is a found in free-living colonies on the surface of the ground, growing symbiotically with fungi to form lichen species, and grows symbiotically in the rhizomes of the angiosperm, Gunnera (Gunneraceae). Nostoc fixes atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which may then be used or converted to a form suitable for plant growth. The free-living forms we investigated desiccate during times of dry weather and rehydrate to photosynthesize and fix nitrogen. Nostoc colonies were collected locally and allowed to desiccate to a uniform moisture …