Morphological And Physiological Responses Of Maize(Zea Mays L.) To Zinc Fertilization In Purple Soils

(1)Cereal crops play an important role in the diet of humans and livestock,as well as supply raw materials for various industries.In humans,the intake of food that is deficient in micronutrients responsible for hidden hunger.It needs to mitigate malnutrition among the people,therefore chemical fertilizers to the crops are often used to mitigate the malnutrition among the people.(2)Maize is one of the most productive and widely grown crops.It is also one of the world’s staple crops and susceptible to the Zn-deficiency in the soil more than other crops to Zn-deficiency.Maize is the most appropriate crop for biofortification to reduce Zn-deficiency.The lack of Zn in human diets reduces the immunological capacity to resist several chronic diseases.In China,the availability of Zn in soil and foodstuffs is low so Zn fertilization can increase maize production in Zn-deficient soil.(3)Considering all factors into account,field experiments were carried out in the research fields of the Southwest University for two years(2019 and 2020).Three levels of Zn fertilizer(0,5,10 kg/ha)were applied to the maize field.(4)Zn fertilization significantly increased plant height,stem diameter,leaf area,number of leaves compared to control of no Zn application.The vegetative stage(VT)stage showed that plant height and stem diameter were improved by nearly 13% and 19% in Zn5(Zn fertilization5 kg/ha)and Zn10(Zn fertilization 10 kg/ha)respectively,compared to Zn0(control).The total surface leaf area in the VT stage during 2020,about 29% and 25% were enhanced in Zn5 and Zn10 than Zn0 respectively.At final harvest(R6),roots and shoots’ dry matter increased 30%and 32% in Zn5 and Z10,compared to the control plot(Zn0)significantly.Morphological and physiological parameters of plants responded to Zn fertilization(Zn5 and Zn10),significantly.Harvest index,leaf area index,specific leaf area,absolute growth rate,crop growth rate,leaf area duration,and net assimilation rate were higher in both Zn-treated plots than in control.For instance,the NAR was 43.2% and 31.8% higher in Zn5 and Zn10 compared to untreated plots in 2020(57-90 DAS)respectively.The ear height,cob length,cob diameter and girth,rows per cob,grains per row,grains per cob,1000-grains weight,and shelling percentage were improved due to Zn fertilization.For example,grains per cob were increased by approximately 19% in Zn treated(Zn5 and Zn10)compared to control.Grain and stover yields were significantly higher in Zn-treated maize plots than untreated.Relative to the control,the data mean grain yield was91% and 96% in Zn5 and Zn10 respectively(p<0.05).Many phenotypic and genotypic attributes had a strong significant correlation with each other.The total N amount in the plant appeared to increase due to Zn fertilization.Generally,the chemical fertilizers decreased enormously fungal communities in the purple soil but some positive response for some fungal communities towards Zn fertilizer input was also l.(5)From the abovementioned findings,we conclude that application of the Zn application to the purple soil can improve the vegetative and yield attributes in maize crops and thus can play an important role in improving human health.However,it can have a detrimental effect on the majority of fungal species.