Effective Microorganisms Improve Growth, Nutrients Uptake, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Photosystem II, and Essential Oil While Reducing Canopy Temperature in Water-Stressed Salvia sclarea Plants

Table 4

Effects of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB) on the quantum efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) in dark- and light-adapted conditions (Fv/Fm), chlorophyll content (SPAD-value), plant’s health (normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI), and canopy temperature (CT) expressed in Celsius degrees (°C), of clary (Salvia sclarea) plants grown under two irrigation (IR) treatments.

Treatment	Fv/Fm	SPAD	NDVI	CT
Irrigation (IR)
IR100	0.779^†a	32.9^a	0.64^a	37.9^b
IR50	0.703^b	28.7^b	0.58^b	49.5^a
NFB
Control	0.661^e	27.5^e	0.55^e	46.1^a
B. subtilis	0.735^d	29.9^d	0.60^d	43.9^b
Ps. flu	0.750^c	31.1^c	0.61^c	43.3^bc
Cyanobacteria	0.769^b	32.4^b	0.63^b	42.9^cd
Trichoderma	0.789^a	33.2^a	0.65^a	42.3^d
IR × NFB
T1	0.711^g	29.3^fg	0.58^f	40.2^d
T2	0.764^d	31.8^d	0.63^cd	38.1^e
T3	0.784^c	33.2^c	0.64^c	37.5^ef
T4	0.804^b	34.5^b	0.66^b	37.1^ef
T5	0.830^a	35.7^a	0.68^a	36.6^f
T6	0.611^h	25.8^i	0.52^g	52.0^a
T7	0.706^g	27.9^h	0.57^f	49.7^b
T8	0.715^g	28.9^gh	0.58^f	49.2^bc
T9	0.734^f	30.4^ef	0.60^e	48.7^bc
T10	0.748^e	30.6^e	0.62^d	48.1c

^†Mean values within the same column for each trait with the same lowercase letter are not significantly different according to Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD) test at . Measurements were done at 120 days after transplanting. IR100, 100% of reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo); IR50, 50% of reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo); T1, 100% ETo without nitrogen-fixing bacteria; T2, 100% ETo + B. subtilis; T3, 100% ETo + Ps. flu; T4, 100% ETo + Cyanobacteria; T5, 100% ETo + Trichoderma; T6, 50% ETo without nitrogen-fixing bacteria; T7, 50% ETo + B. subtilis; T8, 50% ETo + Ps. flu; T9, 50% ETo + Cyanobacteria; T10, 50% ETo + Trichoderma.