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

支持中西部中部平原地区的农村社区至关重要。农业对堪萨斯州、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（美国农业部2021年ERS数据）。由于气候变化，这个农业区正面临越来越频繁和严重的干旱；例如，根据内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校：美国干旱监测中心的数据，2022年10月，内布拉斯加州100%、堪萨斯州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（如工程、科学、农业科学和社会科学）。项目组将以在干旱条件下保持土壤水分和改善水质为目标进行研究。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。研究人员将研究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；并确定农民采用与不同水权和政策相关的新灌溉方法的意愿。MICRA项目将在实验室规模、温室规模和田间规模上调查土壤修正的影响，并将进行调查和焦点小组。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。MICRA团队将产生关于土壤改良剂（即土壤湿润细菌、枯草芽孢杆菌和生物炭）影响的基础知识，以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重点上。研究重点1将验证枯草芽孢杆菌的时空润湿行为是由土壤类型、初始土壤水分水平、土壤疏水性和施用方法驱动的假设，从而产生关于土壤润湿、蒸散发的新知识，并开发预测土壤-微生物相互作用的基因组尺度代谢模型。Thrust 2的中心假设是枯草芽孢杆菌介导的表面活性剂的产生（即改变水的表面张力）与生物炭介导的土壤团聚相结合，可以协同提高土壤保水能力。推力2将确定土壤湿润细菌和生物炭对亏缺灌溉条件下土壤持水能力、养分转化和根瘤菌群的影响。要点3侧重于以下假设：土壤质量较差（如含沙量高）的生产者（即农民）将更愿意采用新的精确灌溉技术和做法，特别是在减少历史用水量的地区。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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

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.