Understanding the contribution of humalite for soil health and crop production

农民对土壤健康的认识日益提高，以促进可持续作物生产。腐殖土是一种天然存在的有机物质，由于其独特的淡水沉积环境，含有高浓度的腐殖酸和低含量的重金属。众所周知，腐殖基物质可以改善土壤的物理、化学和生物特性。因此，腐植质土可能是一种具有成本效益和环境友好的土壤改良剂，具有多种最终用途。在阿尔伯塔中南部发现了大量的腐植质岩矿床，这些矿床可能具有很大的商业化潜力，可用于改善土壤健康和可持续农业生产。近年来，当地农民在他们的田地里带来并应用了腐殖土，但科学数据有限，这给农学家和农民留下了几个悬而未决的问题，例如：对于给定的作物，应该应用什么样的施用率？对土壤养分供应、土壤健康、耐旱性、植物-微生物共生关系、植物生长和产量有何影响？因此，需要进行支持性研究，以发现腐植质岩的潜在好处，并使加拿大和国际用户能够在商业上获得腐植质岩。我们与Prairie Mines & Royalty ULC（PMRU）合作，回答农民提出的许多基本问题，并建立PMRU用于商业化Humalite的基线信息。在这个拟议的项目中，我们将评估腐植石的潜在效益：1）提高土壤养分的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）缓解作物生产的干旱胁迫。我们期望在上述研究途径中用不同的作物测试腐植质岩。该研究项目的主要潜在成果是为不同的农业产业开发基于腐殖酸盐的适销产品，这些产品对最终用户来说既经济又环保。此外，我们预计，腐殖酸具有提高氮利用效率和减少农业系统中合成肥料施用的潜力，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性来促进碳封存。该项目将培养一名博士后，三名本科暑期学生和三名兼职本科研究助理。

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.