Autochthonous drought-tolerant arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and bacteria can increase nutrients acquisition and alleviate drought stress in lavandula plants

In a natural arid Mediterranean soil we determined that Lavandula dentata plants increased growth, nutrition and drought tolerance when inoculated with autochthonous bacteria or arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and particularly with both. The highest P and K acquisition by the dual inoculated plants protected against the drought stress imposed as the decreasement of antioxidant GR, APX and CAT enzymatic activities show. The role of microbial inoculants is important in the restoration of arid ecosystems.This study has been carried out in the framework of the Project AGL 2009-12530-CO2-02.Peer reviewe