Sustainable biofertilizer production through mitigating the invasiveness of Prosopis juliflora in Fujairah: improving arid soil quality and Medicago sativa seedlings

To date, plant invasiveness remains one of the biggest challenges globally, and none of the suggested methods has shown strong effectiveness in mitigating their nuisances. Here, we investigated the allelopathic effects of the exotic invasive plant Prosopis juliflora on the seed and seedling responses of Medicago sativa. We also investigated the potential of using biofertilizer derived from the composted leaves of P. juliflora to enhance arid soil properties and seedlings performance of M. sativa mimicking the natural conditions. Medicago sativa seeds were treated with various levels of allelochemicals (0, 10, 20, and 30%) prepared from water leaves extracts of Prosopis juliflora to determine the inhibitory concentrations, considering light and dark treatments. In the other work, seed germination, seedlings growth and root nodulation of M. sativa were treated with three concentrations (0, 20 and 40%) of biofertilizer produced from the composted leaf material of P. juliflora in two treatments: Non-mixed, and mixed compost with camel manure, and the experimentations were scheduled for 30 days. Allelopathic experiment: Allelochemical concentrations, light, and time exhibited significant effects on the chemical composition of the tested solutions than the control. The effects were also greater on the seedlings attributes. Seed germination and seedling responses were completely inhibited at the concentrations above 10 and 20% respectively in the dark and light treatments. Biofertilizer experiment: Mixed compost showed stronger and positive effects on the tested soil than the non-mixed and the control. The values recorded on the seedlings growth and biochemical attributes were significantly higher in the mixed compost than the non-mixed and the control. However, the values of root length were greater at 20% of the non-mixed compost. Root nodulation was negatively affected in the non-mixed than the mixed compost, and control. These findings suggest that the negative impacts of the invasive plant Prosopis juliflora could be turned into beneficial to restore arid soil quality in the non-native range with cost-effective.