TABLE 3.

Effects of soil water content and inoculation of sunflowers with Rhizobium sp. strain YAS34 on nitrogen uptake by the plant in experiment 2^a

Compartment	Value type	Value for treatment groupd:				LSD	n	Significance of effecte:
		NI/NWS	Inoc/NWS	NI/WS	Inoc/WS			Inoculation	Water stress	Interaction
Shoots	QNb	3.30 a	4.43 c	3.35 a	3.80 b	0.27	4	***	**	**
	% FNRc	6.68 a	15.36 c	6.46 a	9.04 b	2.15	4	***	***	***
Roots	QN	0.88 a	1.38 b	1.03 a	1.10 a	0.27	4	**	NS	*
	% FNR	2.09 a	5.04 b	2.38 a	2.88 a	1.17	4	***	*	**
RAS	QN	1.05 ab	1.98 c	0.73 a	1.20 b	0.34	4	***	***	NS
	% FNR	0.31 a	0.94 b	0.15 a	0.33 a	0.20	4	***	***	**

^aAbbreviations: NI, noninoculated; NWS, non-water stressed; Inoc, inoculated; WS, water stressed; NS, nonsignificant. 

^bQN is in milligrams of N per plantlet. 

^cFNR = (QN_sample × E_sample)/(QN_fertilizer × E_fertilizer) where QN is the total nitrogen in a sample or applied fertilizer and E is the isotopic excess of ¹⁵N (percent). 

^dValues followed by the same letter(s) indicate homogeneous groups (P < 0.05 [LSD]) after line-by-line variance analysis. 

^e*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001.