Morphological and Physiological Responses of Cucumis sativus L. to Water with Micro-Nanobubbles

Authors
B. Dahrazma
A. Naghedinia
H. Ghasemian Gorji
S. F. Saghravani
Department of Civil Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Abstract
The scarcity of water, along with the concern of safe production of food, emphasizes the need for new agricultural techniques. Increasing dissolved oxygen concentration in water promotes the growth of plants in many ways. The aim of the present research was to investigate how cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.) morphologically and physiologically respond to water enriched with air Micro-NanoBubbles (MNBs) as an oxygen saturating measure. The plants from early stage of seed planting (two groups, 32 plants in each) were cultured either with air-nanobubbles water or with tap water for 12 weeks, and the steric stability of MNBs in water was confirmed through zeta potential measurements (-20.47 mV). The number of blossoms in the plants irrigated by air MNBs water was almost 3.8 times more than the number of blossoms in those that were irrigated by tap water. MNBs water increased leaf area up to an average of 77%. Physiological indices such as chlorophylls a, b, and carotenoids were, respectively, 1.34, 1.44, and 1.35 times greater in the plants watered with MNBs than those with tap water. Overall, this study demonstrated that water with air micro-nanobubble had a positive effect on cucumber plants and is potentially an effective tool for the environmental friendly, economical, and profitable production of the plant.

Keywords

Subjects

1. Agarwal, A., Jern, N., W. and Liu, Y. 2011. Principle and Applications of Microbubble and Nanobubble Technology for Water Treatment. Chemosphere, 84: 1175-1180.
2. APHA American Public Health Association. 1995. Standard Methods for the Extraction for Water and Wastewater. 19th Edition, Byrd Prepess Springfield, Washington.
3. Anand, T., Chandrasekaran, A., Kuttalam, S., Raguchander, T. and Samiyappan, R. 2010. Management of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Mildews through Azoxystrobin-Tolerant Pseudomonas fluorescens. J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 11: 211-226.
4. Asao, T., Ohba, Y., Tomita, K., Ohta, K. and Hosoki, T. 1999. Effects of Activated Charcoal and Dissolved Oxygen Levels in the Hydroponics Solution on the Growth and Yield of Cucumber Plants. J. Jpn. Soc. Hortic. Sci., 68: 1194-1196.
5. Bonachela, S., Acuna, R. A., Magan, J. J. and Malfa, O. 2010. Oxygen Enrichment of Nutrient Solution of Substrate-Grown Vegetable Crops under Mediterranean Greenhouse Conditions: Oxygen Content Dynamics and Crop Response. Span. J. Agr. Res., 8: 1231-1241.
6. Bredwell, M. D. and Worden, R. M. 1998. Mass-Transfer Properties of Microbubbles. 1. Experimental Studies. Biotechnol. Prog., 14: 31-38.
7. Carver, R. E. 1971. Procedures in Sedimentary Petrology. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York.
8. Demming-Adams, B. 1990. Carotenoids and Photoprotection in Plants: A Role for the Xanthophyll zeaxanthin. Biochimia et Biophysica Acta, 1020: 1-24.
9. Ebina, K., Shi, K., Hirao, M., Hashimoto, J., Kawato, Y., Kaneshiro, S. and Yoshikawa, H. 2013. Oxygen and Air Nanobubble Water Solution Promote the Growth of Plants, Fishes, and Mice. Plos One, 8: 1-7.
10. Ehret, D. L., Edwards, D., Helmer, T., Lin, W., Jones, G., Dorais, M. and Papadopoulos, A. P. 2010. Effects of Oxygen-Enriched Nutrient Solution on Greenhouse Cucumber and Pepper Production. Sci. Hortic., 125: 602-607.
11. Endo, A., Srithongouthai, S., Nashiki, H., Teshiba, I., Iwasaki, T., Hama, D. and Tsutsumi, H. 2008. DO-Increasing Effects of a Microscopic Bubble Generating System in a Fish fFarm. Mar. Pollut. B, 54: 78-85.
12. Hassanzadeh, N., Esmaili Sari, A. and Bahramifar, N. 2012. Dissipation of Imidacloprid in Greenhouse Cucumbers at Single and Double Dosages Spraying. J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 14: 557-564.
13. Holtman, W., Duijn, B V., Blaakmeer, A. and Blok, Ch. 2005. Optimization of Oxygen Levels in Root Systems as Effective Cultivation Tool. Acta Hortic., 697: 57-64.
14. Jiang, C. Y., Zhao, S. M., Song, W. T., Yamaguchi, T. and Riskowski, G. L. 2016. Effect of Micro/Nano Bubble Water on Growth, Yield and Quality of Lettuce under Substrate Cultivation. Intl. Agric. Eng. J., 25(3): 1-8.
15. Lee, J. W., Lee, B. S., Kang, J. G., Bae, J. H., Ku, Y. G., Gorinstein, Sh. and Lee, J. H. 2014. Effect of Root Zone Aeration on the Growth and Bioactivity of Cucumber Plants Cultured in Perlite Substrate. Biologia, 69: 610-617.
16. Li, P. and Tsuge, H. 2006. Water Treatment by Induced Air Flotation Microbubbles. J. Chem. Eng. Jpn., 39: 896-903.
17. Lichtenthaler, H. K. 1988. Application of Chlorophyll Fluorescence. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, London.
18. Matsuki, N., Ishikawa, T., Ichiba, Sh., shiba, N., Ujike, Y. and Yamaguchi, T. 2014. Oxygen Supersaturated Fluid Using Fine Micro/Nanobubbles. Int. J. Nanomed., 9: 4495-4505.
19. Mozaffari, R. 2013. Investigating on the Hydrodynamic Flow Patterns Using Air- Micro-Nano Bubbles. MSc. Thesis, Shahrood University of Technology, Iran.
20. Onari, H. 2001. Fisheries Experiments of Cultivated Shells Using Micro-Bubble Techniques. J. Heat Trans. Soc. Jpn., 40: 2-7.
21. Oshita, S. and Liu, S. 2013. Nanobubble Characteristics and Its Application to Agriculture and Food. Int. Symp. Agri-Food Health Wealth, 23-32.
22. Pahlavan, R., Omid, M. and Akram, A. 2012. Application of Data Envelopment Analysis for Performance Assessment and Energy Efficiency Improvement Opportunities in Greenhouses Cucumber Production. J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 14(Suppl. Issue): 1465-1475.
23. Park, J. and Kurata, K. 2009. Application of Microbubbles to Hydroponics Solution Promotes Lettuce Growth. Hort. Technol., 19: 212-215.
24. Rong, G. Sh. and Tachibana, Sh. 1997. Effect of Dissolved O2 Levels in a Nutrient Solution on the Growth and Mineral Nutrition of Tomato and Cucumber Seedlings. J. Jpn. Soc. Hortic. Sci., 66: 331-337.
25. Samadi, A. 2011. Effect of Particle Size Distribution of Perlite and its Mixture with Organic Substrates on Cucumber in Hydroponics System. J. Agr. Sci. Tech., 13: 121-129.
26. Shams, J., Etemadi, N., Najafi, P., Rezaee, A. and Shams, A. 2011. Measurement of Chlorophyll (a) and (b) in Three Petunias. Sixth National Conference on New Ideas in Agriculture, Kurasgan Islamic Azad University, Kurasgan, Iran.
27. Takahashi, M. 2005. Potential of Micro-Bubbles in Aqueous Solutions: Electrical Properties of the Gas-Water Interface. J. Phys. Chem. B, 109: 21858–21864.
28. Takahashi, M. 2015. Nanobubbles: An Introduction. In: “Micro- and Nanobubbles: Fundamentals and Applications”, (Ed.): Tsuge, H. Pan Stanford Publishing, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
29. Yoshida, S., Kitano, M. and Eguchi, H. 1996. Water Uptake and Growth of Cucumber Plants (Cucumis Sativus L.) under Control of Dissolved O2 Concentration in Hydroponics. Acta Hortic., 440: 199-204.
30. Yoshida, S., Kitano M. and Eguchi, H. 1997. Growth of Lettuce Plants (Lactuca Sativa L.) under Control of Dissolved O2 Concentration in Hydroponics. Biotronic, 26: 39-45.
31. Young, A. and Britton, G. 1993. Carotenoids in Photosynthesis. Springer Science and Business Media, BV, UK.
Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology
Volume 21, Issue 1
January and February 2019
Pages 181-192