Using roots to bio-engineer soil

利用根对土壤进行生物工程

• 批准号: BB/R003440/1
• 负责人: Wilfred Otten
• 金额: $ 67.86万
• 依托单位: CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FR003440%2F1
• 关键词: Using; roots; bio; engineer; soil

In order to sustainably increase crop yields to feed the growing world population, and considering the challenges we are facing today due to climate change, we need to carefully manage our soil resources. Promoting measures to manage soils better whilst reducing costs will also help farming businesses remain competitive and profitable. Instead of burning fossil fuels to drag more steel through the ground, this research will harness the power and properties of plant roots to engineer soil for optimised crop growth.Roots can bio-engineer soil because they can bind soil particles together, providing resistance against soil erosion by water. Roots can also improve soil infiltration and hence prevent runoff. Roots also absorb and release nutrients into the soil, allowing soils to improve their nutrient status and to reduce environmental side effects. Last but not least, roots break up the soil and create pore spaces when they decay. These macro-pores aerate the soil and make its structure more crumbly. So roots can act as a surrogate for machinery and hence reduce the number of tillage operations. Cover crops are a way for UK growers to address the current Greening Rules that require them to: maintain minimum soil cover, minimise land management to limit erosion and maintain organic matter levels. They are fast growing species, planted between two cash crops, which have the ability to boost soil health and reduce the negative impact of agro-management on the environment. They are usually planted immediately after harvest and left to grow all winter; they cover and protect the soil surface against erosion and die off or are destroyed in early spring to make way for the cash crop. There has been an increasing interest in research to support the application of cover crops. However, current estimates indicate that only 8% of all arable land used for spring cropping in the UK adopts winter cover crops in the rotation. This is because robust science that provides evidence of the multiple benefits of cover crops is lacking.Past research has successfully linked agronomic productivity to above ground plant traits. More recent studies also investigated root traits and demonstrated their important effect on several single soil functions such as aggregate stability and water availability. No study has looked at the effects of root properties of cover crops to synergistically enhance multiple soil functions and no study has provided a robust methodology to combine complementary root traits in plant communities and to model their effects on multiple soil functions. The main aim of this study is therefore to develop a novel framework to select and combine complementary root traits in cover crops that prevent soil resource losses and improve crop growth conditions.To develop the model, root screening will be performed with ten common cover crops (oat, rye, ryegrass, Festulolium, buckwheat, mustard, fodder radish, phacelia, Lucerne and vetch) grown in big soil monoliths, filled with real soil, under laboratory conditions. The plants will be grown in different environments prone to soil degradation. A series of root properties (e.g. rooting depth, root hair density) will be carefully determined, and we will use a DNA technique, qPCR, to determine the proportions of root biomass of each species within a plant community. The key deliverable of this research will be a novel model that will allow the design of combinations of plant species with complementary root traits that prevent soil erosion, mitigate runoff and improve soil structure and nutrient status for optimised crop growth.

为了可持续地提高作物产量以养活日益增长的世界人口，并考虑到我们今天因气候变化而面临的挑战，我们需要仔细管理我们的土壤资源。在降低成本的同时促进更好地管理土壤的措施也将有助于农业企业保持竞争力和盈利能力。这项研究将利用植物根的力量和特性来改造土壤，以优化作物生长，而不是燃烧化石燃料来拖动更多的钢材。植物根可以生物工程土壤，因为它们可以将土壤颗粒结合在一起，提供对土壤水分侵蚀的抵抗。根部还可以改善土壤的渗透，从而防止径流。根还可以吸收和释放养分到土壤中，使土壤改善其营养状况，减少对环境的副作用。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，当根腐烂时，会分解土壤并产生孔隙空间。这些巨大的孔隙使土壤通气性强，使其结构更加易碎。因此，根部可以作为机械的替代品，从而减少耕作作业的数量。覆盖作物是英国种植者应对当前绿化规则的一种方式，该规则要求他们：保持最低土壤覆盖率，最大限度地减少土地管理，以限制侵蚀，并保持有机物质水平。它们是生长迅速的物种，种植在两种经济作物之间，能够促进土壤健康，减少农业管理对环境的负面影响。它们通常在收获后立即种植，整个冬天都留着生长；它们覆盖并保护土壤表面不受侵蚀，在早春死亡或被破坏，为经济作物让路。人们对支持覆盖作物应用的研究越来越感兴趣。然而，目前的估计表明，在英国所有用于春季种植的耕地中，只有8%的土地在轮作中采用了冬季覆盖作物。这是因为缺乏有力的科学证据来证明覆盖作物的多重益处。过去的研究已经成功地将农艺生产力与地上植物特征联系起来。最近的研究还研究了根系特征，并证明了它们对团聚体稳定性和水分有效性等几种单一土壤功能的重要影响。没有研究着眼于覆盖作物的根系特性对协同增强多种土壤功能的影响，也没有研究提供一种可靠的方法来结合植物群落中互补的根系特性并模拟其对多种土壤功能的影响。因此，本研究的主要目的是开发一种新的框架来选择和结合覆盖作物的互补根系性状，以防止土壤资源损失和改善作物生长条件。为了建立该模型，在实验室条件下，对10种常见的覆盖作物(燕麦、黑麦、黑麦草、高羊茅、荞麦、芥菜、饲料萝卜、凤尾兰、紫花苜蓿和野豌豆)在实验室条件下进行了根部筛选。这些植物将生长在不同的环境中，容易发生土壤退化。我们将仔细确定一系列的根特性(例如，根深、根毛密度)，并将使用DNA技术qPCR来确定每个物种在植物群落中的根生物量比例。这项研究的关键成果将是一种新的模式，该模式将允许设计具有互补根系特征的植物物种组合，以防止土壤侵蚀，减少径流，并改善土壤结构和养分状况，以优化作物生长。