Agronomic Practices to Improve the Nutritional Quality of Crops under a Changing Climate

气候变化下提高作物营养质量的农艺实践

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04122
• 负责人: Gao, Xiaopeng
• 金额: $ 2.55万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 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=765628
• 关键词: Agronomic; Practices; Improve; Nutritional; Quality

Soil fertility and nutrient management can influence crop quality and thus, human health. Bioavailability of micronutrients, especially zinc, in cereal grains is generally low, which can result in malnutrition deficiencies in humans whose diets are primarily cereal-based. As a world-leading producer and exporter of cereal products, Canada is facing the essential and urgent need to manage soils for crop nutritional quality and health. Appropriate agronomic practices can assist Canadian farmers to grow cereal grains with high protein and micronutrient bioavailability and low risk of potentially toxic trace elements. These nutritional quality indexes are already considered as a premium value in the marketplace or likely included in the future. The more frequent extreme weather conditions of drought or flooding resulted from climate change make it more challenging due to the interactive effect of environment and genotype on crop nutritional quality. Practices such as diversified crop rotation and organic food production systems are thought to improve crop quality compared to monoculture or conventional systems. However, a quantitative analysis at the national or global scale has never been done. Past studies indicate significant genotypic variation in grain zinc concentration in Canadian wheat germplasm. This program will test if modern wheat varieties, that double the yield of old varieties, can sustain high variation in nutrition quality, and whether zinc accumulation during grain filling is determined by direct soil uptake or translocation from the vegetative organs. This Discovery Grant program is a key milestone along the journey of my laboratory toward its long-term goal of understanding nutrient cycling in soil-food-environment-health nexus and developing best management practices to ensure food and nutrition securities under the changing climate. Over the next five years, my research program will quantify the impact of crop rotation, organic farming and fertilizer management strategies on crop quality and human health from a food consumption perspective. The research will further develop effective soil fertility management to enhance nutritional quality. This will be done through a series of field and greenhouse studies combined with the cutting-edge isotope tracing technique, state of the art methodology in meta-analysis and human health assessment tools. The outcomes of this program will advance the knowledge of how soil fertility management affects nutrient bioavailability through interactions with environment and genotypes, and foster practices to improve cereal grain nutritional quality. The research will allow two Ph.D., two M.Sc. and five undergraduate students to receive interdisciplinary training in novel technical skills in soil fertility, plant nutrition and human health. The research findings will assist the Canadian grain industry in continuing world-class production standards under the changing climate.

土壤肥力和养分管理可以影响作物质量，从而影响人类健康。谷物中微量营养素，特别是锌的生物利用率普遍较低，这可能导致主要以谷物为基础的饮食的人营养不良。作为世界领先的谷物产品生产国和出口国，加拿大面临着为作物营养质量和健康管理土壤的基本和迫切需要。适当的农艺措施可以帮助加拿大农民种植高蛋白和微量营养素生物利用率高、潜在有毒微量元素风险低的谷物。这些营养质量指数已经被认为是市场上的溢价，或者可能在未来被包括在内。由于环境和基因对作物营养品质的交互作用，气候变化导致的干旱或洪涝等极端天气条件更加频繁，使其面临更大的挑战。人们认为，与单一栽培或传统种植制度相比，多种作物轮作和有机食品生产制度等做法可以提高作物质量。然而，从来没有在国家或全球范围内进行过量化分析。过去的研究表明，加拿大小麦种质的籽粒锌含量存在显著的遗传变异。这个项目将测试现代小麦品种，其产量是旧品种的两倍，是否能够承受营养品质的高度变化，以及籽粒灌浆期间锌的积累是由营养器官的直接土壤吸收还是转移决定的。这一发现资助计划是我的实验室朝着其长期目标前进的一个关键里程碑，该目标是了解土壤-食物-环境-健康关系中的养分循环，并制定最佳管理实践，以确保在不断变化的气候下的食品和营养安全。在接下来的五年里，我的研究计划将从食品消费的角度量化轮作、有机耕作和化肥管理战略对作物质量和人类健康的影响。这项研究将进一步发展有效的土壤肥力管理，以提高营养质量。这将通过一系列实地和温室研究，结合尖端的同位素追踪技术、荟萃分析的最新方法和人类健康评估工具来完成。该项目的成果将增进对土壤肥力管理如何通过与环境和基因类型的相互作用影响养分生物有效性的知识，并促进提高谷物营养质量的实践。这项研究将允许两名博士和两名硕士。以及五名本科生，接受关于土壤肥力、植物营养和人类健康方面的新技术技能的跨学科培训。研究结果将有助于加拿大谷物行业在不断变化的气候下继续保持世界级的生产标准。