CHARACTERIZATION OF ARBUSCULAR ON THE CHARACTERIZATION OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAE FUNGI AND ITS GROWTH OF BARLEY CHARACTERIZATION OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAE FUNGI AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE GROWTH OF BARLEY (Hordeum vulgare ordeum vulgare L.):

<strong>ABSTRACT</strong>: Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the fifth much important cereal crop that is cultivated in wide ranges of environments by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. However, Ethiopia's barley production, which has been influenced by both biotic and abiotic factors, is leads to below the global average and the required yield to meet the country's national demand. Land degradation is among the major constraints and is a serious ecological problem that results in decreased barley and the physicochemical properties of soil are being altered and underground microbial compositions including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Therefore, the study evaluates the impact of Soil Water Conservation Practice on the restoration of Arbuscule Mycorrhizal Fungi spore density, diversity, root colonization, and soil nutrients in Wenago district, Southern Ethiopia. It also aimed at investigating the effectiveness’s of inoculation of isolated from the study area on growth parameters of barley, under greenhouse condition. For this study, a total of 36 soil samples were collected from nine conserved and three degraded sampling sites. The effectiveness’s of inoculation of 10 of the most commonly isolated species on the growth parameters of barley were also investigated by comparing with two control (fertilizer treated and non-treated) groups under greenhouse condition. The spore densities of rhizosphere varied from 9±0.42 to 163±7.7/15 kg/m3soils. The percentages of root colonization recorded in this study ranged from 18.9 to 91.3 %. In this study, a total of 447 Arbuscule Mycorrhizal Fungi spores belong to 4 genera and 17 species were well-known. The isolated spores were identified from the genera Glomus (n=218, 48.77%), Acaulospora (n=123, 27.52%), Gigaspora (n=61, 13.65%) and Scutellospora (n=45, 10.07%). Among the 17 types of spore species characterized in this study, the genus Glomus (n=6) contained the highest number of species followed by Acaulospora (n=5), Gigaspora (n=3) and Scutellospora (n=3). It was observed that the three physical conservation practices brought significant improvements in soil indicators in the order Soil Bund &gt; Micro Basin &gt; Fanyaa Juu &gt; Control Soil sample. This implies that SB is the most effective soil management practice in such type of ecology and physical conservation practices by measuring soil quality indicators. Generally, the outcomes showed that soil water conservation practices can restore and increase spore density, variety, and root colonization, as well as soil physicochemical properties. Hence, Soil Water Conservation Practice should be practiced in the study area and the whole country to restore and enhance soil microbiology and physicochemical qualities. The density, variety, and root colonization of Arbuscule Mycorrhizal Fungi species were statistically significantly greater (p &lt;0.05) in the protected regions than in the degraded areas. The greenhouse experimental trial findings revealed that inoculation significantly (P&lt;0.05) enhanced all ten evaluated barley growth metrics as compared to the negative control (untreated/un-inoculated) group. Barley inoculated with Glomus mosseae showed better growth parameter values in 10 parameters even higher than those treated with fertilizer. In addition, barley inoculated with Glomus fasciculatum and Acaulospora sp1 also recorded highest values in 8 and 7 of the growth parameters, correspondingly as compared to the positive control. All of the examined growth parameters had the lowest values in barley infected with Gigaspora gigantea. Further field research studies should also be conducted on varying agro-ecologies and soil type to display and go for the best performing AMF isolates and species for future application.