Impact of nitrogen fertilizer sustainability on corn crop yield: the role of beneficial microbial inoculation interactions

Table 3 Factor loadings of a principal component analysis for corn crop in control and microbial consortia treatments; bold loadings > 0.3

	Without inoculation (control)
Parameters	PC1	PC2	PC3	PC4
SBM	-0.18	0.34	-0.002	0.13
RBM	-0.29	0.19	0.19	-0.09
NFL	0.34	0.19	-0.10	-0.14
LCI	0.09	-0.28	0.16	0.23
A	-0.26	0.32	0.13	0.10
Gs	-0.24	0.27	-0.06	0.02
Ci	0.05	-0.04	-0.33	0.84
E	0.15	0.36	0.01	0.06
H2O2	-0.15	-0.37	0.14	-0.06
MDA	-0.08	-0.44	0.15	0.02
PRO	-0.25	0.13	0.39	0.07
STR	0.35	0.01	-0.04	-0.08
GY	0.33	0.13	-0.06	-0.22
PE	0.17	-0.03	0.61	0.09
NUE	0.31	0.14	0.40	0.27
AFR	0.36	0.10	0.20	0.07
Variance (%)	37.2	25.3	11.2	6.4
Cumulative variance (%)	37.2	62.5	73.7	80.1
Eingenvalues	5.95	4.05	1.79	1.03
	With *A. brasilense +* *B. subtilis* inoculation
Parameters	PC1	PC2	PC3	PC4
SBM	0.31	0.09	-0.19	0.07
RBM	0.15	0.37	-0.11	-0.19
NFL	0.31	-0.29	-0.21	-0.01
LCI	0.14	0.19	0.22	-0.62
A	0.32	0.25	-0.23	-0.11
Gs	0.30	0.20	-0.23	0.05
Ci	0.10	-0.26	0.38	0.41
E	0.08	0.35	-0.19	0.34
H2O2	-0.36	0.28	-0.08	0.19
MDA	-0.37	0.28	0.02	0.14
PRO	0.19	0.10	0.50	-0.15
STR	0.32	-0.29	-0.15	-0.18
GY	0.31	-0.23	-0.11	0.20
PE	0.24	0.16	0.47	0.14
NUE	0.32	0.21	0.14	0.24
AFR	0.35	0.09	0.04	0.13
Variance (%)	41.3	18.0	12.4	6.9
Cumulative variance (%)	41.3	59.3	71.7	78.6
Eingenvalues	6.61	2.88	1.99	1.10

SBM Shoot biomass, RBM Root biomass, NFL N shoot accumulation at flowering, LCI Leaf chlorophyll index, A net photosynthetic rate, GS Stomatal conductance, CI Internal CO₂ concentration in the substomatal chamber, E Transpiration, H2O2 H₂O₂, MDA Malondialdehyde, PRO Leaf soluble proteins, STR Straw production, GY Grain yield, PE Physiological efficiency, NUE N use efficiency, AFR Apparent fertilizer recovery

ISSN: 1471-2229