Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs Target Audience:Durting this reporting period scientists interested in microbial management of organically managed soils were reached through publications and presentations at conferences. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Overall, this project has provided extensive direct training for one undergraduate student (Helen Senerchia), one graduate student (Laura Kaminsky), and one postdoctoral associate (William King). Two other graduate students also became involved, working on our deployment of microbial traps in the long-term cover crop experiments that are ongoing at Penn State (Sarah Richards and Lily Cao). Our Extension work also incorporated three other graduate students (Sarah Isbell, Mara Cloutier, Suzanne Fleishman) who were involved in developing written Extension materials. In the past year: Laura Kaminsky: Heavily involved in both the research and Extension aspects of this project. Leads the project related to on-farm conditioning of microbial products as well as microbial survival under different soil conditions and has performed extensive work in this area. Currently has one publication submitted and another in preparation, related to in-soil conditioning of microbial products (Res. Obj. 2). William King: Although he moved on to a new position at Cornell in 2022, he published an additional paper, showing small-scale differences in microbial and root function across root systems. Sarah Richards and Lily Cao: Additional analysis of data related to microbial trap deployment in a long-term cover crop experiment at Penn State and are drafting a manuscript on this work (Res. Obj. 1). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In the past year, additional results were disseminated through a publication and conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Res Obj. 1: How do location, existing management, and microbial re-seeding impact "natural" microbial colonization of soils? We are drafting a paper from data on the impact of cover crop mixtures on active microbial colonizers. In general, we found overlap between cover crops in their influence on microbial colonizers, although some groupings based on cover crop type and strong differentiation between plots with cover crops and fallow plots. A complementary dataset, funded by another source, is currently being produced in a cover cropped system in Costa Rica, as a comparison to what we found here in a tropical region. Will King, postdoc on this project, published a paper showing that small differences in location across root systems impact microbial function and root metabolites. This further supports conclusions from this project that small-scale differences in management may have important impacts on microbial processes. Data from that were funded by EMSL, but his time to write and analyze those complementary data was funded by this project. Res. Obj. 2: Can we enhance the predictability with which OMRI-certified microbial products establish and function in soils? A paper showing differential evolution across distinct soil and culture environments, as well as consequences for in-soil fitness, has been submitted. An additional paper on in situ evolution is still in prep. Res. Obj. 3: To what extent does changing soil microbial composition impact a commonly used metric of soil microbial health? - As mentioned in a prior report, we opted to not pursue this objective further after consultation with PASA and to concentrate our effort on our other objectives. Ext. Obj. 1: Work with farmers to develop a mutual understanding of the role of soil microbes in organic agriculture through annual meetings and presentations at farmer conferences. Nothing additional to report. Ext. Obj. 2: Make lasting contributions to farmer decision-making by producing Extension publications that A) communicate our results and B) reveal the breadth of microbial management approaches that are used by farmers in our region. Nothing additional to report.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
King WL, Yates C, Cao L, O'Rourke-Ibach S, Fleishman SM, Richards SC, Centinari M, Hafner BD, Goebel M, Bauerle T, Kim YM, Nicora CD, Anderton C, Eissenstat DM, Bell TH. 2023. Functionally discrete fine roots differ in microbial assembly, microbial functional potential, and produced metabolites. Plant, Cell & Environment
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Bell TH, Kaminsky LM, King WL, Yates C, Richards S, Cao L. 2023. Factors shaping the success and failure of microbial management in soils. Canadian Society of Microbiologists Meeting, Halifax, NS, Canada.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Kaminsky LM. 2022. Applying experimental evolution to improve fitness of plant-beneficial bacteria in agricultural soils. ISME18, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs Target Audience:Our target audience includes farmers who use organic practices, farmers with interest in organic practices, agricultural practitioners (esp. those involved in the microbial products industry), and academics with a focus on microbial ecology and/or agricultural management. We also have specific close interactions with a number of organic and transitioning farmers in Pennsylvania, with whom we established on-farm projects. Our close interaction with farmers has ensured that our work has direct relevance to the farming community and has also allowed us to understand the wide range of microbial management practices in Pennsylvania, as well as the wide range of perceived benefits and challenges of microorganisms in agriculture. The project has provided training opportunities for undergraduates, graduates, and a postdoctoral fellow. Changes/Problems: We chose to invest more heavily in research objectives 1 and 2, due to promising results and the goals of the people we had available to the project. We decided not to further pursue research objective 3 as our original timeline and workforce was disrupted too heavily by COVID. PI Bell has moved to a new position at the University of Toronto, so this grant is now managed by previous Co-PI Jason Kaye. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Overall, this project has provided extensive direct training for one undergraduate student (Helen Senerchia), one graduate student (Laura Kaminsky), and one postdoctoral associate (William King). In the past year, two other graduate students have become involved, working on our deployment of microbial traps in the long-term cover crop experiments that are ongoing at Penn State (Sarah Richards and Lily Cao). Our ongoing Extension work has also incorporated three other graduate students (Sarah Isbell, Mara Cloutier, Suzanne Fleishman) who were involved in developing written Extension materials. In the past year: Laura Kaminsky: Heavily involved in both the research and Extension aspects of this project. Laura has helped in recruiting and maintaining our on-farm network, and connected with these partners multiple times through the year, providing them with data-based factsheets. She has also developed and given Extension presentations on microbial products (Ext. Obj. 1 and 2). Leads the project related to on-farm conditioning of microbial products as well as microbial survival under different soil conditions and has performed extensive work in this area, resulting in one publication and a thesis award in the past year (Res. Obj. 2). William King: Heavily involved in developing projects related to assessing microbial recolonization in soils (Res. Obj. 1). Has published multiple articles on this in the past year, while working in his new position at Cornell, and showed that restoring microbial function through microbiome reintroduction is possible. Sarah Richards and Lily Cao: Collection and analysis of data related to microbial trap deployment in a long-term cover crop experiment at Penn State (Res. Obj. 1). Sarah Isbell, Mara Cloutier, Suzanne Fleishman: Publication of Extension article on microbial management that was previously not reported. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through farmer events (e.g. Farming for Success Field Day), Extension publications, and academic papers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Res Obj. 1 - Complete data analysis and publication of microbial traps in long-term cover crop project. Res. Obj. 2 - Complete two publications related to microbial adaptation under different soil and culture conditions. Res. Obj. 3 - We have decided not to pursue this objective further. Ext Obj. 1 - Nothing planned, but will consider invitations to speak at farmer-facing events. Ext. Obj. 2 - Nothing planned, but will consider opportunities for Extension papers if there is student interest.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Res Obj. 1: How do location, existing management, and microbial re-seeding impact "natural" microbial colonization of soils? Microbial trap transect project was completed and published, showing variability in active microbial colonizers across land use types, but also at very local scales. We performed a controlled experiment of microbiome reintroduction, building on previous work that had suggested this could not "rescue" microbial function in soils. With some technical adjustments in our design (mostly, choice of soils, microbial dilutions, and incubation time), we show the opposite, that certain functions can be rescued through microbiome introductions. We now have two seasons of data on the impact of cover crop mixtures on active microbial colonizers. These are currently being analyzed and we expect a publication in the coming year. Res. Obj. 2: Can we enhance the predictability with which OMRI-certified microbial products establish and function in soils? All data has been collected and much of the data has been analyzed. LM Kaminsky won a Penn State dissertation award for this work and defended her thesis at the end of 2022. She showed soil-specific adaptation of microbes that changed through time; however, the most substantial genomic shifts were related to in-culture growth, an unavoidable part of the microbial product pipeline. LM Kaminsky published a paper on the primers used to assess in-soil survival and showed differential survival of introduced microbes across soil type. We expect two other papers to be published in the next year...these are close to completion, as they were both included in LM Kaminsky's thesis. Res. Obj. 3: To what extent does changing soil microbial composition impact a commonly used metric of soil microbial health? - After consultation with PASA, we opted to not pursue this objective further and to concentrate our effort on our other objectives. Ext. Obj. 1: Work with farmers to develop a mutual understanding of the role of soil microbes in organic agriculture through annual meetings and presentations at farmer conferences. LM Kaminsky presented at the Farming for Success field day hosted by Penn State, speaking on the topic of microbial products. Ext. Obj. 2: Make lasting contributions to farmer decision-making by producing Extension publications that A) communicate our results and B) reveal the breadth of microbial management approaches that are used by farmers in our region. We added one additional Extension publication (not previously reported), summarizing our previous contributions on this topic for farmers.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
King WL, Richards SC, Kaminsky LM, Bradley B, Kaye J, Bell TH. 2023. Leveraging microbiome rediversification for the ecological rescue of soil function. Environmental Microbiome 18: 7.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Borrelli K, Bell TH, Isbell S, Fleishman S, Kaminsky L, Cloutier M. 2021. Understanding and Managing Soil Microbes. Penn State Extension https://extension.psu.edu/understanding-and-managing-soil-microbes
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Kaminsky LM. 2022. Invited speaker on microbial products. Farming for Success Field Day, hosted by Penn State
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bell TH. 2022. How directed evolution in complex environments can reshape bacterial niche breadth. Canadian Society of Microbiologists Conference, Guelph, ON, Canada.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
King W, Kaminsky LM, Gannett M, Thompson G, Kao-Kniffin J, Bell TH. 2021. Soil salinization accelerates microbiome stabilization in iterative selections for plant performance. New Phytologist 234: 2101-2110.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
King WL, Kaminsky LM, Richards SC, Bradley BA, Kaye JP, Bell TH. 2022. Farm-scale differentiation of active microbial colonizers. ISME Communications 2: 39.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Kaminsky LM, Bell TH. 2022. Novel primers for quantification of Priestia megaterium populations in soil using qPCR. Applied Soil Ecology 180: 104628.
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs Target Audience:Our target audience includes farmers who use organic practices, farmers with interest in organic practices, agricultural practitioners (esp. those involved in the microbial products industry), and academics with a focus on microbial ecology and/or agricultural management. We also have specific close interactions with a number of organic and transitioning farmers in Pennsylvania, with whom we have established on-farm projects. Our close interaction with farmers ensures that our work has direct relevance to the farming community and has also allowed us to understand the wide range of microbial management practices in Pennsylvania, as well as the wide range of perceived benefits and challenges of microorganisms in agriculture. The project also provides training opportunities for undergraduates, graduates, and a postdoctoral fellow. Changes/Problems:- We are just getting truly back to full capacity and re-evaluating where we are. RO3 has stayed on the backburner as we have prioritized other work. - We may need to look at recruiting changes, as the postdoc on the project may have other career opportunities starting in January. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided direct training for one undergraduate student (Helen Senerchia), one graduate student (Laura Kaminsky), and one postdoctoral associate (William King). Our ongoing Extension work has also incorporated three other graduate students so far (Sarah Isbell, Mara Cloutier, Suzanne Fleishman) who were involved in developing written Extension materials. Helen Senerchia: Continued to develop our farmer survey, but has now moved to another position. Looking to move this project to other personnel.(Ext. Obj. 2). Laura Kaminsky: Heavily involved in both the research and Extension aspects of this project. Laura has helped me in recruiting our on-farm network, and connects with these partners multiple times through the year. In addition to establishing research projects on their farms, she has taken samples for them which she then processed for sequencing and/or PLFA analysis. She translated those data into factsheets for the farmers to help them understand the outputs, as well as providing annual project updates (Ext. Obj. 1). Has also contributed to Extension presentations and is developing written and video-based Extension materials (Ext. Obj. 1 and 2). Leads the project related to on-farm conditioning of microbial products as well as microbial survival under different soil conditions (Res. Obj. 2). Has completed and published a project that looks at how soil conditions impact natural microbial recolonization (Res. Obj. 1). William King: Heavily involved in developing projects related to assessing microbial recolonization in soils (Res. Obj. 1). Has developed various on-farm assessment systems to assess recolonization of soils and litter, including the ability to determine how the latter impacts litter decomposition. Further, the litter-based project is nested within the long-term Cover Crop Cocktail project at Penn State, which also helps in building a larger interdisciplinary knowledge base around cover cropping in organic systems (Res. Obj. 1). Published an article focused on factors impacting in-field microbial product success (Res. Obj. 2). Suzanne Fleishman, Mara Cloutier, Sarah Isbell: Contributing to the writing of two articles published in eOrganic. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through farmer conferences (e.g. PASA Meeting, Stroud series), Extension articles (e.g. eOrganic), and academic publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Res Obj. 1 - Analysis of sequences from microbial re-introduction project and corn decomposition project. - Submission of manuscript focused on microbial recolonization across transects. - Deployment, sequencing, and analysis of microbial traps in cover crop treatments, in collaboration with a colleague who will look at changes in root composition at the same sites. Res. Obj. 2 - Continued sequence analysis of adapted MegaPhos and Actinovate strains, including publication of comparison between whole genome, 100-isolate mix, and metagenome sequencing approaches. - Complete conditioning of MegaPhos to multiple physical soil environments and performing sequencing to assess adaptation. - Complete publication of in situ adaptation method. Res. Obj. 3 - Re-assess approach for this objective. Potentially advance as originally planned, but will discuss with colleagues who may have related objectives to see if we can do this in a higher impact way. Ext Obj. 1 - Present at upcoming Keystone Crop and Soils Conference and plan for at least one other oral presentation. - Continued discussion/collaboration with on-farm partners. Ext. Obj. 2 - Focus on completing and deploying farmer survey.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Res Obj. 1: How do location, existing management, and microbial re-seeding impact "natural" microbial colonization of soils? - Microbial trap transects that were set up by W King had DNA extracted, bacterial and fungal communities sequenced, and many analyses performed. We have a working draft of this paper and these results are guiding our upcoming work. - Corn litter deployed in cover crop treatments was assessed for decomposition and DNA was extracted and sequenced. Analyses for differences in microbial composition by treatment are ongoing. - For controlled experiment, looking at microbial re-introductions, DNA is extracted and sequenced and accessory analyses (N mineralization and enzyme assays) have been performed. Analyses are ongoing. - We are deploying soil microbial traps throughout the long-term cover crop treatments to look at how cover crops influence active microbial pools. A collaborator is helping us to compare these data to root growth, to determine how these two metrics relate in soil. Res. Obj. 2: Can we enhance the predictability with which OMRI-certified microbial products establish and function in soils? - Additional samplings of field-deployed microbial adaptation devices plys additional sequencing - Have performed numerous genome-level analyses on initial MegaPhos sequencing and are sequencing for Actinovate now. Identified numerous mutant genes, some of which appear to be involved in nutrient acquisition. - It appears the soil conditions may be more important than deployment location, so we are now modifying the incubation soil type to determine how that impacts product adaptation. Res. Obj. 3: To what extent does changing soil microbial composition impact a commonly used metric of soil microbial health? - Due to various COVID challenges and interesting results from the other research aims, we have not made substantial progress on this aim in the past year. We are evaluating the best path forward. Ext. Obj. 1: Work with farmers to develop a mutual understanding of the role of soil microbes in organic agriculture through annual meetings and presentations at farmer conferences. - Continue to managean on-farm network of farmers for this project. Providethem with annual project updates, as well as in-person interaction. - Presentations at PASA annual meeting as well as two other soil health series. Ext. Obj. 2: Make lasting contributions to farmer decision-making by producing Extension publications that A) communicate our results and B) reveal the breadth of microbial management approaches that are used by farmers in our region. - Two publications in eOrganic, focused on demistifying soil microbes and talking about the potential for microbial management in organic ag.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Kaminsky L, Cloutier M, Fleishman S, Isbell S, Borrelli K, Bell TH. 2021. Soil microbes in organic crop production systems 101. eOrganic http://eorganic.org/node/34601
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Isbell S, Fleishman S, Cloutier M, Kaminsky L, Borrelli K, Bell TH. 2021. Management of soil microbes on organic farms. eOrganic http://eorganic.org/node/34646
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
King W, Bell TH. 2021. Can dispersal be leveraged to improve microbial inoculant success? Trends in Biotechnology doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2021.0.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Bell TH, Kaminsky LM, Richards S. 2021. The present and future of boosting soil health through microbial management. Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale, PA, USA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Bell TH. 2021. Potential for management in the soil microbiome. Crops Conference Series.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Bell TH and Kaminsky LM. 2021. Harnessing soil biology for healthy crops. Pasa Sustainable Agriculture Conference, virtual.
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs Target Audience:Our target audience includes farmers who use organic practices, farmers with interest in organic practices, agricultural practitioners (esp. those involved in the microbial products industry), and academics with a focus on microbial ecology and/or agricultural management. We also have specific close interactions with a number of organic and transitioning farmers in Pennsylvania, with whom we have established on-farm projects. Our close interaction with farmers ensures that our work has direct relevance to the farming community and has also allowed us to understand the wide range of microbial management practices in Pennsylvania, as well as the wide range of perceived benefits and challenges of microorganisms in agriculture. The project also provides training opportunities, for undergraduates, graduates, and a postdoctoral fellow. Changes/Problems:- As mentioned, we could not initiate microbial recolonization transects with our on-farm partners due to COVID restrictions. Depending on our results from initiating this project at the PSU farm, we will decide on the value of pursuing this in the coming year. - Delay in initiating controlled experiments for Res. Obj. 3, again due to COVID restrictions on lab access. Expect to initiate these in the coming year. - Sequencing services have been incredibly slow this year. We hope this picks up in the next few months, or we could have unexpected delays in data generation for the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided direct training for one undergraduate student (Helen Senerchia), one graduate student (Laura Kaminsky), and one postdoctoral associate (William King). Our ongoing Extension work has also incorporated three other graduate students so far (Sarah Isbell, Mara Cloutier, Suzanne Fleishman) who have been involved in developing written Extension materials. Helen Senerchia: Has been involved in putting together our survey on microbial managementthat we hope to distribute to farmers next year. Helen was involved in creating questions, organizing the survey, transcribing our survey to RedCap, and working through IRB approvals (Ext. Obj. 2). Laura Kaminsky: Heavily involved in both the research and Extension aspects of this project. Laura has helped me in recruiting our on-farm network, and connects with these partners multiple times through the year. In addition to establishing research projects on their farms, she has taken samples for them which she then processed for sequencing and/or PLFA analysis. She translated those data into factsheets for the farmers to help them understand the outputs (Ext. Obj. 1). Has also contributed to Extension presentations and is developing written and video-based Extension materials (Ext. Obj. 1 and 2). Leads the project related to on-farm conditioning of microbial products as well as microbial survival under different soil conditions (Res. Obj. 2). Has completed and published a project that looks at how soil conditions impact natural microbial recolonization (Res. Obj. 1). William King:Heavily involved in developing projects related to assessing microbial recolonization in soils(Res. Obj. 1). Has developed various on-farm assessment systems to assess recolonization of soils and litter, including the ability to determine how the latter impacts litter decomposition. Further, the litter-based project is nested within the long-term Cover Crop Cocktail project at Penn State, which also helps in building a larger interdisciplinary knowledge base around cover cropping in organic systems(Res. Obj. 1). Suzanne Fleishman, Mara Cloutier, Sarah Isbell: Contributing to the writing of two eOrganic articles on microbial assessment and management that we expect to submit in December 2020. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have mostly been disseminated through a pair of farmer conferences last winter and a research publication, as well as research-focused talks. In addition, we have had direct conversations with our on-farm partners regarding project progress and results. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Res Obj. 1 - Collection and sequencing of samples from field deployments. Analysis of how soil conditions and distance from forest and/or cover crop treatments influenced microbial colonization. - Functional assessment of controlled experiments to determine how microbial reintroductions influence soil function. - Assess value of on-farm deployments for this project with farmer partners. Res Obj. 2 - Analysis of sequences generated to assess microbial adaptation through on-farm conditioning. - Collection of long-term on-farm samples for this project (likely collection at 16 or 18 months). - Validation of developed qPCR probes for MegaPhos as well as testing of in-soil persistence. - Attempt to develop qPCR probes for Actinovate (this has so far been a challenge). - Determine subset of field-conditioned Actinovate samples for sequencing and assessment of on-farm adaptation. Res Obj. 3 - Expect to initiate respiration experiments with soils collected through PASA collaboration. Ext Obj. 1 - Along with L Kaminsky, I will present on our work at the PASA Conference in January. We also expect to present at 1-2 research meetings, depending on what conferences look like for next year. - Continued discussion and collaboration with on-farm partners. Ext Obj. 2 - Submission and publication of two eOrganic articles focused on microbial assessment and microbial management in organic farming systems. - Publication of L Kaminsky video on microbial assessment. - Deployment of farmer survey to assess integration and perceptions of microbial management in Pennsylvania.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Res Obj. 1:How do location, existing management, and microbial re-seeding impact "natural" microbial colonization of soils? - L Kaminsky published a paper looking at how soil conditions interact with microbial sources to shape microbial colonization (Kaminsky et al. 2020). This paper showed that the pool of colonizers is more limited when soils have been disturbed through added nutrients or salt accumulation (as can occur in high tunnel systems), with mostly generalist microorganisms surviving. - Initially we had planned to set up transects for assessing microbial recolonization at each on-farm location, but due to COVID restrictions early in the year, we adapted this to be performed exclusively at the PSU Russell Larson Ag Center. Microbial traps were deployed across multiple transects by W King, collected at two time points, and DNA is being extracted for future sequencing. Microbial regrowth in farm soil appears to be slower than in forest soil. - W King deployed corn litter in litter bags throughout the Cover Crop Cocktail plots at the long-term organic site at the Russell Larson Ag Center in order to assess the impact of cover crops on litter colonization and decomposition. These will be collected in December to assess decomposition and microbial composition. - W King also initiated a controlled experiment which aims to look at how microbial reintroductions influence soil functioning. This will incubate for the next ~3 months, so we expect results within the next year. Res. Obj. 2:Can we enhance the predictability with which OMRI-certified microbial products establish and function in soils? - Identified two commonly sold and OMRI-certified microbial products that contain the marketed organism and that perform a clear and known function in soils (Actinovate and MegaPhos). - Developed systems for in situ adaptation of microbial products and seeded these with the targeted products. - Systems deployed to farms of on-farm partners and two organic-certified land at Russell Larson Agricultural Center at PSU. Collected after 3 and 10 months of in-field conditioning, with 1-2 more sets of units still deployed in the field. - To assess genomic change, we sequenced the ancestral and conditioned products for MegaPhos in 3 ways: 1) single collected isolates, 2) pools of 100 isolates, and 3) soil metagenomes. We will compare these approaches to determine which is ideal for assessing in situ adaptation. - L Kaminsky has developed primers that specifically detect the MegaPhos strain, allowing her to assess its survival in experimental soils. This will allow us to perform differential survival assays over the next year to see whether on-farm conditioning impacts in-soil survival. Res. Obj. 3:To what extent does changing soil microbial composition impact a commonly used metric of soil microbial health? - In collaboration with Franklin Egan and Sara Nawa from PASA, we collected soils from their Soil Health Benchmarks project, which will be used in this Objective. COVID restrictions have impaired our ability to move ahead on this Objective in a number of ways, including lab shutdowns through June, restrictions to one person at a time now, and slow sequencing from providers. Ext. Obj. 1: Work with farmers to develop a mutual understanding of the role of soil microbes in organic agriculture through annual meetings and presentations at farmer conferences. - Developed and maintained an on-farm network of farmers for this project. Provided them with sequencing and interpretation of soils from their farms, including detailed factsheets developed by L Kaminsky. - In preparing for Res. Obj. 2, L Kaminsky performed a screening of 9 commonly sold microbial products for organic farmers and found that four did not even contain the marketed organism. Although not a robust and replicated study, we use this as a point of caution in presentations to farmers about the potential of microbial products. Ext. Obj. 2: Make lasting contributions to farmer decision-making by producing Extension publications that A) communicate our results and B) reveal the breadth of microbial management approaches that are used by farmers in our region. - We have prepared the bulk of a survey that will be used to assess microbial management strategies and perceptions in Pennsylvania. We hope to distribute this in the next year. - We have made substantial progress on two written products for eOrganic, which we expect to submit in December. - L Kaminsky developed a video explaining common metrics for microbial assessment, which she is editing for publication through Penn State Extension.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Bell, T.H., & Kaminsky, L. (2019). "Can we enhance microbial contributions to regenerative ag systems?," Regenerative Grazing From The Ground Up, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Spring Creek Farm - Wernersville, PA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Bell, T.H. (2019). "The invisible and essential inhabitants of soil," PASA Advanced Farmer Gathering: Collaborating to Improve Your Workforce and Your Soil, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Harrisburg, PA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Kaminsky, L., Peoples, T., & Bell, T.H. (2019). "Characterizing the primary microbial colonizers of soil," Microbiome Center Networking Event, Penn State, University Park, PA.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Kaminsky, L., Esker, P., & Bell, T.H. (2020) Abiotic conditions outweigh microbial origin during bacterial assembly in soils. Environmental Microbiology doi:10.1111/1462-2920.15322.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Bell, T.H. (2020). "Can we manipulate soil microbiomes?," Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO (virtual).
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