Nitrogen fixation in the rice-field soils of Bengal

Abstract

It has been proved by several workers by means of pure culture experiments that fixation of atmospheric nitrogen may take place by the activity of some algae, specially members of the group Myxophyceae. On the mucous sheath of most of these algae bacteria are generally present quite abundantly. Many of these are found to be Azotobacter, Clostridium and other nitrogen-fixing bacteria which are ordinarily distributed in the soil. Pure culture technique has been employed by recent workers to find out whether the bacteria and the various algae by themselves independently or jointly (symbiotic-ally) carry on nitrogen-fixation work.