Identification of Urochloa humidicola hybrids with waterlogging tolerance and Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI) capability

Soil waterlogging (flooding of the soil) is a major limitation to pasture productivity due to the slow diffusion of gases in water that reduces plant growth, as O2 availability in the root zone decreases (Cardoso et al., 2014).
Biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) is a process where roots exudate organic substances that inhibit the activity of soil nitrifiers - nitrification (Subbarao et al., 2007, 2009, Nunez et al., 2017).
Urochloa humidicola (Uh) is an important forage grass in humid lowland tropics that has been identified and characterized for having good waterlogging tolerance (Keller-Grein et al. 1996; Calisto et al. 2008; Cardoso et al., 2013) and high soil nitrification inhibitory potential (Subbarao et al, 2007; Gopalakrishnan et al., 2007).