Elucidating how nutrient-limiting soil conditions drive plant-induced weathering processes under a changing climate

阐明在气候变化下限制养分的土壤条件如何驱动植物引起的风化过程

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04512
• 负责人: Cornelis, JeanThomas
• 金额: $ 3.72万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=758000
• 关键词: Elucidating; how; nutrient; limiting; soil

The excessive use of mineral fertilizer has become a critical contributor to global environmental issues. Without a global agriculture revolution, we are unlikely to attain the twin goals of feeding the world's population while keeping Earth's systems in balance. The original goal of agricultural management was to maximize soil homogeneity for optimized crop establishment and growth. However, crop roots naturally forage for heterogeneously distributed nutrients when availability is limited. Hence, understanding and capitalizing on these adaptable responses represents an opportunity to reduce our dependence on high fertilizer inputs. This knowledge would therefore allow for a more realistic understanding of soil-root interactions and enable feasible strategies for designing crop systems with superior nutrient-use efficiency. Climatic constraints together with constraints on nutrients and water in soils will stimulate root activity, thereby having an important role in plant-induced weathering (bioweathering) processes that foster nutrient mobilization. While these processes are suspected to play a pivotal role in both nutrient acquisition and soil carbon sequestration, the precise nature of the connection between nutrient soil conditions and root-associated weathering remains largely uninvestigated. The overarching objective of my 5-year research program will be to elucidate how soil physicochemical properties influence root capacity to acquire nutrients, with a particular emphasis on characterizing soil-root interactions under changing climatic conditions. We will study soil-root interfaces using Rhizonboxes, evaluate the geochemical composition and metabolomic profile in rhizosphere soil solutions, and assess weathering features at the mineral surfaces. We will relate changes in soil microsite properties to the expression of root traits that are directed towards specific bioweathering processes. The proposed program responds to an urgent need to develop an integrative research approach that combines expertise in microscale soil processes and plant physiology. The long-term objective will be to test scale-up of successful strategies that result in enhanced crop yield, while lowering fertilizer use, and thus limiting potential environmental damage. The research program will train 1 PDF, 2 PhD, 2 MSc and 6 undergrads in understanding soil and root responses to nutrient and climatic constraints, and developing new soil-plant interaction strategies. With these skills, my HQPs will be highly sought after by academia and the Canadian agri-food sector. With our advancing knowledge on the interactions between microscale soil properties and root phenomics and metabolomics, the outcomes of this research program will contribute greatly to a new, sustainable paradigm of crop nutrient-use efficiency that has importance to assess and potentially re-conceptualize Canadian agricultural systems that will enable adaption and mitigation to climate changes.

矿物肥料的过度使用已成为全球环境问题的关键因素。如果没有全球农业革命，我们就不可能实现养活世界人口和保持地球系统平衡的双重目标。农业管理的最初目标是最大限度地提高土壤的均匀性，以优化作物的建立和生长。然而，当可利用性有限时，作物根系自然地搜寻不均匀分布的养分。因此，了解和利用这些适应性反应是一个机会，以减少我们对高肥料投入的依赖。因此，这方面的知识将允许更现实的理解土壤-根系相互作用，并使可行的策略，设计具有上级养分利用效率的作物系统。 气候制约因素加上对土壤养分和水分的制约因素将刺激根系活动，从而在植物引起的风化（生物风化）过程中发挥重要作用，促进养分的流动。虽然这些过程被怀疑在养分获取和土壤固碳方面发挥着关键作用，但养分土壤条件和根相关风化之间联系的确切性质在很大程度上仍未得到研究。 我的5年研究计划的总体目标将是阐明土壤理化性质如何影响根系获得养分的能力，特别强调在不断变化的气候条件下表征土壤-根系相互作用。我们将使用Rhizonboxes研究土壤-根界面，评估根际土壤溶液的地球化学组成和代谢谱，并评估矿物表面的风化特征。我们将涉及到土壤微立地性质的变化，对特定的生物风化过程的根性状的表达。 该计划响应了迫切需要开发一种综合研究方法，结合微尺度土壤过程和植物生理学的专业知识。长期目标将是测试扩大成功战略的规模，从而提高作物产量，同时减少化肥使用，从而限制潜在的环境破坏。该研究计划将培训1名PDF，2名博士，2名硕士和6名本科生，了解土壤和根系对养分和气候限制的反应，并制定新的土壤-植物相互作用策略。凭借这些技能，我的HQP将受到学术界和加拿大农业食品部门的高度追捧。随着我们对微尺度土壤特性与根表型组学和代谢组学之间相互作用的深入了解，这项研究计划的成果将大大有助于建立一种新的、可持续的作物养分利用效率范式，这种范式对评估和潜在地重新概念化加拿大农业系统具有重要意义，这将使加拿大农业系统能够适应和缓解气候变化。