Rhizosphere – A Perfect Soil Engineer

Abstract

‘Rhizosphere’, the hidden half of the plant, although coined in 1904 by German Scientist Hiltner, it still remains an age old infant for exploration. It is the zone of nutrient mobilization and acquisition, a battle field of pathogenic and non pathogenic microbes, a storage godown of root exudates and deposits, a perfect joint family of hormones and microbes. Rhizosphere is the traffic police man which regulates the flow of nutrients between soil and plants. It balances pH, acidifies and solubilizes fixed phosphorus, stores root exudates to attract beneficial microbes, aids in biological nitrogen fixation, protects the plants by evading pathogens in the root zone, mobilizes micronutrients through release of siderophores under Strategy –I and II mechanisms and aids in improvement of soil physical properties through structural stability.