Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Efficient agricultural management and sustainable practices are needed to meet national food security. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization are currently indispensable for high crop yield. However, industrial ammonia production is an energy-intensive process, consuming ~2% of the world's energy and producing ~1% of atmospheric CO2. A majority of P comes from mined rock phosphate; a non-renewable resource that has several major negative impacts, including scarce resource demands, environmental degradation, and geopolitical instability. Overuse of N and P fertilizers, when many crops have low N uptake efficiency (NUE) and P uptake efficiency (PUE), leads to environmental deterioration through leaching and greenhouse gas emissions as N2O through microbial mediated N cycling. This results in groundwater contamination, surface water eutrophication, and air pollution. These environmental damages have been estimated to cost >$2.2 billion annually in the US alone, and we currently lack sustainable ways to enhance plant N and P uptake for high yield crop production. If the application of these fertilizers can be controlled (supplied at rate of plant's need) or circumvented, smaller amounts could be applied to achieve the same yields, or plants may be able to grow on marginal soils, expanding the footprint of crop production. In addition to the fertilizer crisis, drought events are threatening the global food supply chain because the depletion of water availability in soil has negative impacts on crop growth. Currently, it is estimated that agricultural irrigation accounts for 70% of global water use and about 40% of that is lost due to seepage and evaporation. The increase in drought occurrences also taxes water systems to meet the demand of agricultural irrigation. It becomes essential to find sustainable fertilizer alternatives and increase the water retention in soils.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
he proposed research aims to increase crop yield by creating a sustainable biofertilizer that supplies plants with a mix of mutualistic fungi and beneficial microbes embedded in biodegradable hydrogel beads. Hydrogels will be designed as a highly functional and drought resilient soil amendment as they can absorb water and slowly release it, thus reducing soil moisture loss. Further, they can immobilize beneficial microbes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which helps avoid system washout while keeping the consortium near the plant rhizosphere. AMF are obligate mutualists that associate with a majority of crops, and can increase the plant's ability to access and absorb soil N and P while also improving plant water uptake, hence benefitting plant growth while reducing losses to surrounding environments and reducing water pollution. The hydrogel beads will include: a) N-fixing bacteria that can excrete atmospherically fixed N2 in a plant available form (ammonium) and have plant growth promoting effects; and b) phosphate solubilizing bacteria can release bound P in soils making it available for plant uptake. Together, the AMF and bacterial consortium hold potential to reduce the amount of N and P fertilizer, or alleviate it's use completely while still increasing plant N and P uptake.
Project Methods
This project takes advantage of expertise in bacterial-fungal-plant interactions and polymer science to implement a game-changing path to increase our fundamental understanding of how bacterial-fungal hydrogels can benefit plant N and P uptake to increase crop yield while dampening the negative effects of conventional fertilizers. The foremost aims are to investigate the substrate and nutrient exchange in addition to spatio-temporal interactions in hydrogels populated with: a) N-fixing bacteria, b) P-solubilizing bacteria, and c) AMF, to test if these cultures can enhance plant growth. These aims will be achieved by entrapment of these organisms in hydrogels, expanding the gained knowledge to guide new soil amendment strategies, and broadening applicability of the engineered hydrogel approach that also adds drought resistance to soils.?