Collaborative Research: RII Track-2 FEC: Supporting rural livelihoods in the water-stressed Central High Plains: Microbial innovations for climate-resilient agriculture (MICRA)

支持中西部中部高原地区的农村社区至关重要。农业对堪萨斯、内布拉斯加州和俄克拉荷马州的直接经济影响分别为213亿美元、263亿美元和76亿美元（2021年美国农业部ERS数据）。由于气候变化，该农业区正面临干旱频率和严重程度的增加;例如，根据内布拉斯加大学林肯分校：美国干旱监测，2022年10月，内布拉斯加州100%、堪萨斯98. 5%和俄克拉荷马州100%经历了干旱。MICRA项目汇集了来自堪萨斯州立大学（KSU），内布拉斯加大学林肯分校（UNL）和兰斯顿大学（LU）的研究人员，他们具有广泛的专业知识（例如，工程、科学、农业科学和社会科学）。该项目小组将开展研究，目的是在干旱条件下保持土壤水分和改善水质。玉米是研究的目标作物，因为它在中西部的经济重要性，以及它对水和养分的大量需求。研究人员将调查添加改良剂以改善土壤的影响（即，土壤湿润细菌、枯草芽孢杆菌和生物炭）;了解植物对干旱的反应;了解气候变化对农业工人的影响;确定农民是否愿意采用与不同水权和政策相关的新灌溉方法。MICRA项目将在实验室规模、温室规模和实地规模调查土壤改良剂的影响，并将开展调查和重点小组。MICRA团队将从历史上被排斥的群体中招募学生;指导和培训本科生和研究生进行跨学科研究;在研究生阶段教授跨学科课程;支持KSU，UNL和LU的早期职业教师;并对农村K-12科学教师进行教育推广。土壤湿润细菌，B.枯草杆菌和生物炭）来增加土壤的持水能力，从而提高农业生态系统的生产力，因为气候变化导致的干旱使水资源变得更加有限。跨学科研究集中在三个研究方向。研究重点1将检验B.枯草芽孢杆菌是由土壤类型，初始土壤水分水平，土壤疏水性和管理方法，从而产生新的知识，土壤湿润，蒸散，预测，基因组规模的代谢模型的发展土壤微生物相互作用。推力2的中心假设是B。枯草杆菌介导的表面活性剂产生（即，其改变水的表面张力），当与生物炭介导的土壤聚集体结合时，可以协同地改善土壤保水。推力2将确定土壤湿润细菌和生物炭对持水能力，养分转化和非充分灌溉下的根瘤菌群的影响。第三个重点是假设生产者（即，农民）具有较低质量的土壤（例如，在一些地区（例如，沙含量高的地区），将更愿意采用新的精确灌溉技术和做法，特别是在已经削减历史用水量的地区。焦点小组和调查数据将产生关于灌溉者对土壤改良和灌溉的看法的基本见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Supporting rural communities in the Central High Plains region of the Midwest is critical. Agriculture is responsible for direct economic impacts of $21.3B, $26.3B, and $7.6B in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, respectively (USDA ERS data for 2021). This agricultural region is facing increased frequency and severity of drought due to climate change; as an example, in October 2022, 100% of Nebraska, 98.5% of Kansas, and 100% of Oklahoma experienced drought conditions, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: U.S. Drought Monitor. The MICRA project brings together researchers from Kansas State University (KSU), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and Langston University (LU) with a wide range of expertise (e.g., engineering, science, agricultural science, and social science). The project team will conduct research with the goal to preserve soil moisture and improve water quality under drought conditions. Corn is the target crop for study due to its economic importance in the Midwest, and its substantial demand for water and nutrients. Researchers will investigate the impacts of adding amendments to improve the soil (i.e., soil wetting bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, and biochar); understand plants’ behavior in response to drought; understand the impacts of climate change on agricultural workers; and determine farmers' willingness to adopt new irrigation practices relative to differing water rights and policies. The MICRA project will investigate the impacts of soil amendments at the lab-scale, greenhouse-scale, and field-scale, and will conduct surveys and focus groups. The MICRA team will recruit students from historically excluded groups; mentor and train undergraduate and graduate students to conduct interdisciplinary research; teach interdisciplinary courses at the graduate level; support early career faculty at KSU, UNL, and LU; and conduct educational outreach to rural K-12 science teachers.The MICRA team will generate fundamental knowledge regarding the impacts of soil amendments (i.e., soil wetting bacteria, B. subtilis, and biochar) to increase the water holding capacity of soil, thereby improving agroecosystem productivity as water becomes more limited due to climate-change-driven droughts. Interdisciplinary research is focused in three research thrusts. Research Thrust 1 will test the hypothesis that spatial and temporal soil wetting behavior of B. subtilis is driven by soil type, initial soil moisture levels, soil hydrophobicity, and administration methods, thereby generating new knowledge regarding soil wetting, evapotranspiration, and development of predictive, genome-scale metabolic models for soil-microbial interactions. The central hypothesis of Thrust 2 is that B. subtilis-mediated surfactant production (i.e., which changes the surface tension of water), when combined with biochar-mediated soil aggregation, can synergistically improve soil water retention. Thrust 2 will determine the impacts of soil wetting bacteria and biochar on water-holding capacity, nutrient transformation, and the rhizobiome under deficit irrigation. Thrust 3 focuses on the hypotheses that producers (i.e., farmers) having lower quality soils (e.g., high sand content) will be more willing to adopt new precision irrigation technologies and practices, particularly in regions where curtailments to historical water use amounts have been put in place. Focus group and survey data will yield fundamental insights regarding irrigator’s perceptions regarding soil amendments and irrigation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.