Understanding the contribution of humalite for soil health and crop production

为了可持续的作物生产，农民对土壤健康的认识日益增强。腐殖石是一种天然有机物质，由于其独特的淡水沉积环境，腐植酸含量高，重金属含量低。腐植酸类物质因改善土壤的物理、化学和生物特性而广为人知。因此，腐殖石可能是一种成本效益高、环境友好的土壤改良剂，具有广泛的最终用途。在艾伯塔省中南部发现了大量腐殖石矿藏，这些矿藏可能具有巨大的商业化潜力，可用于改善土壤健康和可持续农业生产。近年来，当地农民在自己的田里引进并应用了腐殖石，但科学数据有限，这让农学家和农民都面临着几个悬而未决的问题，比如：特定作物的施肥量应该是多少？对土壤养分有效性、土壤健康、抗旱性、植物-微生物共生关系、植物生长和产量有什么影响？因此，需要进行支持性研究，以发现腐殖石的潜在好处，并使其在加拿大和国际用户中得到商业应用。我们与Prairie Mines&Royalty ULC(PMRU)合作，回答农民提出的许多基本问题，但也建立了基准信息，PMRU将利用这些信息将腐殖石商业化。在这项拟议的项目中，我们将评估腐殖石的潜在效益：1)改善土壤养分有效性和植物养分吸收；2)改善土壤微生物种群和多样性；3)改善植物生长、产量和营养品质；4)改善豆科作物的共生固氮；5)缓解干旱对作物生产的影响。我们预计将在上述研究途径中用不同的作物测试腐殖石。这一研究项目的主要潜在成果是为各种农业行业开发基于腐殖石的适销对路的产品，这些产品对最终用户来说既经济又环保。此外，我们预计腐殖石有潜力提高氮素利用效率，减少农业系统中合成肥料的使用，从而保护水体免受污染和温室气体排放，同时通过促进土壤微生物活动促进碳固定。该项目将培养一名博士后，三名本科生暑期学生和三名兼职本科生研究助理。

There is growing awareness of soil health by farmers for sustainable crop production. Humalite is a naturally occurring organic substance containing high concentrations of humic acid, and low heavy metals due to its unique freshwater depositional environment. Humic-based substances are well known for improving the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil. Therefore, humalite may be a cost-effective and environmentally friendly soil amendment with a wide variety of end uses. Large deposits of humalite were found in Southern Central Alberta that may have great potential to commercialize for improving soil health and sustainable agricultural production. In recent years, local farmers have brought and applied humalite in their fields, but there is limited scientific data which has left both agronomists and farmers with several unanswered questions such as: what application rates should be applied for a given crop? what are the effects on soil nutrient availability, soil health, drought tolerance, plant-microbial symbiotic associations, plant growth and yield? Therefore, supportive research is needed to discover the potential benefits of humalite and make it commercially available to Canadian and international users. We partner with the Prairie Mines & Royalty ULC (PMRU) to answer many of the basic questions raised by farmers but also establish baseline information that will be used by PMRU for commercialization of humalite. In this proposed project, we will evaluate potential benefits of humalite for 1) improving soil nutrient availability and plant nutrient uptake, 2) improving soil microbial population and diversity, 3) improving plant growth, yield, and nutritional quality, 4) improving symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume crops, and 5) alleviating drought stress on crop production. We expect to test humalite with diverse crops for the above research avenues. The major potential outcome of this research project is to develop humalite-based marketable products for the diverse agricultural industries, which are economical and environmentally friendly to the end users. Additionally, we expect that humalite has the potential to improve nitrogen use efficiency and reduce synthetic fertilizer application in agricultural systems, thereby protecting water bodies from contamination and the emission of greenhouse gases while promoting carbon sequestration by promoting soil microbial activities. The project will train one postdoc, three undergraduate summer students, and three part-time undergraduate research assistants.