Over the past decades, anthropogenic disturbance of geological structures has been significantly documented in Slovakia, mainly driven by the national economy's demand for mining resources. Among these resources, brown coal, primarily mined in the Upper Nitra coal basin in the Prievidza district (Slovakia), has been essential. Mining activities around town of Handlov & aacute;, and villages of Ko & scaron;, C & iacute;ge & lcaron; and Sebedra & zcaron;ie, particularly at the C & iacute;ge & lcaron; coal mine, have induced several geological defects. These defects, characterised by large cracks and local landslides, disrupt the hydrogeological conditions, significantly impacting the soil water regime stability of the forest ecosystems in these damaged areas. This study investigates the variability and dynamics of the soil water potential in a mining-affected site (Ra & ccaron;kov laz) compared to an intact reference area (& Ccaron;ertove chodn & iacute;ky) between 2020 and 2022. Our findings suggest that mining activities could have substantial implications for the soil water regime and, consequently, the ecological stability of forest ecosystems.

Rice is threatened by ineffective inputs of water and fertilizers. Therefore, we detected the effect of soil clay content on plant physiological traits and their relationships to phosphorus (P) utilization -efficiency of rice under different irrigation options. Thus, our experiment was conducted in a two -factor randomized complete block design. The first factor was irrigation method, including three choices: alternate wetting/critical drying (AWCD) (50% drying), alternate wetting/sharp drying (AWSD) (30% drying), and alternative wetting/minor drying (AWMD), (10% drying). The second factor was soil clay amount, with three levels at 65, 50, and 30%, corresponding to SHC, SMC, and SLC. The root 's growth and activity were lower in AWCD x SLC than in AWMD x SHC. While the former treatment decreased the P content in soil, the latter increased their availability. The glutamine synthetase (492.5 mu mol g -1 h -1 ) was lower in AWCD x SLC than in AWMD x SHC at 1006.1 mu mol g -1 h -1 , leading to the increase of oxidative cell damage. The optimal P nutrition improved plant growth under AWMD x SHC. The AWCD x SLC led to the minimum agronomic efficiency of P (PAE, 13.67 g/g) and the apparent recovery efficiency of P (PARE, 1.55%). However, the maximum values of PAE (44.05 g/g) and PARE (21.45%) were detected in AWMD x SHC. This study suggests that increasing soil clay content encourages the growth, yield, and P uptake of rice under alternate wetting/minor drying irrigation. The study has excellent application potential, providing technical support for precision water and P fertilizer management of rice.

Drought is a potent abiotic stressor that arrests crop growth, significantly affecting crop health and yields. The arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can offer to protect plants from stressful environments through improving water, and nutrient use efficiency by strengthening plant root structure and harnessing favorable rhizosphere environments. When Acaulospora laevis (AMF) and Bacillus subtilus (PGPR) are introduced in combination, enhanced root growth and beneficial microbial colonization can mitigate drought stress. To assess this potential, a pot experiment was done with maize (Zea mays L.) to explore the effects of A. laevis and B. subtilus under different water levels (well-watered = 80 %; moderate water stress = 55 %; and severe water stress = 35 %) on maize yield, soil microbial activities, nutrients contents, root, and leaf functioning. Plants exposed to severe drought stress hampered their root and leaf functioning, and reduced grain yield compared with control plants. Combined use of AMF and PGPR increased root colonization (104.6 %- 113.2 %) and microbial biomass carbon (36.38 %-40.23 %) under moderate to severe drought conditions over control. Higher root colonization was strongly linked with elevated ACC (aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) production, subsequently enhancing water use efficiency (21.62 %-12.77 %), root hydraulic conductivity (1.9 %-1.4 %) and root nutrient uptake under moderate to severe drought conditions. Enhanced nutrient uptake further promoted leaf photosynthetic rate by 27.3 %-29.8 % under moderate and severe drought stress. Improving leaf and root physiological functioning enhanced maize grain yield under stressful environments. Furthermore, co -inoculation with AMF-PGPR reduced cellular damage by lowering oxidative enzyme levels and increasing antioxidative enzyme activities, improving plant performance and grain yield under stressful envi- ronments. Conclusively, the synergistic interaction of AMF with PGPR ensured plant stress tolerance by reducing cellular injury, facilitating root -leaf functioning, enhancing nutrient -water -use -efficiencies, and increasing yield under drought stress.