Biostimulants improve soil and plant conditions to enhance the health-related properties of fresh produce

土壤管理实践影响生物刺激剂提高新鲜农产品质量的能力，为消费者带来附加值。假设生物刺激剂对土壤结构、养分含量和可用性、根形态、植物生理学和土壤/植物共生关系的影响是解释性机制（Halpern等人，2015).该项目将有三个阶段：1。多因素分析选择：a）生物刺激剂处理（和施用方式），B）土壤健康的主要指标（物理、化学和生物特性），c）目标作物/农产品（如沙拉或蔬菜）和d）作物质量指标（如选定的营养素、维生素、抗氧化剂）。2.使用2种互补方法，从作物数量和质量方面评估生物刺激剂应用的效果：a）土壤和新鲜农产品生长在长期Saxmundham网站，Rothamsted研究将对具有长期和/或已知生物刺激剂应用历史的种植者田地（Broadwalk田地）和种植者田地进行取样，以测试生物刺激剂处理影响土壤结构、养分含量和可用性的假设，根形态、植物生理学和土壤/植物共生关系，导致作物质量（维生素、营养素和抗氧化剂水平）的差异。B）克兰菲尔德大学独特的土壤健康设施将用于控制环境变量（温度、光照、降雨），以提高经常从实地实验数据中发现的信噪比。这将有助于更好地了解生物刺激剂的有效性如何随着土壤管理实践而变化（例如生物刺激剂类型，应用模式）。3.在塞恩斯伯里的学生实习将调查消费者面临的影响和价值，从更好地管理土壤上种植的新鲜农产品。例如，营养益处在消费者饮食中有意义吗？营养成分如何影响产品的保质期（可能减少食物浪费）？种植者/供应商/零售商是否理解和重视使用更循环经济的有机资源的好处？适用哪些规定？

Soil management practice affects the ability of biostimulants to improve the quality of fresh produce, bringing added value to consumers. It is hypothesised that the biostimulants effects on soil structure, nutrient content and availability, root morphology, plant physiology, and soil/plant symbiotic relationships are explanatory mechanisms (Halpern et al., 2015).This project will have 3 phases:1. Multifactorial analysis to select: a) biostimulant treatments (and modes of application), b) the salient indicators of soil health (physical, chemical and biological properties), c) target crops / produce (e.g. salad or vegetables) and d) crop quality indicators (e.g. selected nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants). 2. Evaluate the effects of biostimulant application, in terms of crop quantity and quality, using 2 complementary approaches: a) soils and fresh produce grown on the long term Saxmundham site, Rothamsted Research (Broadwalk field) and growers fields with a long and/or known history of known biostimulant application will be sampled to test the hypothesis that biostimulant treatments affect soil structure, nutrient content and availability, root morphology, plant physiology, and soil/plant symbiotic relationships, leading to differences in crop quality (levels of vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants). b) The unique Soil Health Facilities at Cranfield University will be used to control environmental variables (temperature, light, rainfall) to improve the signal to noise ratio often found from field experimental data. This will allow better understanding of how biostimulant effectiveness changes with soil management practice (e.g. biostimulant type, mode of application). 3. The students placement at Sainsburys will investigate the consumer facing impact and value from fresh produce grown on better managed soils. For example, are nutritional benefits meaningful within a consumer diet? How does nutritional content impact on product shelf life (potentially reducing food waste)? Are the benefits of using a more circular economy regarding organic resources understood and valued by growers / suppliers / retailers? What regulations apply?