Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Soil microbiomes play vital roles in agroecosystems, mediating processes like decomposition and carbon sequestration. Given their intrinsic connections to soil health, integrating new microbial perspectives offers transformative approaches for sustainable soil management. However, we currently lack a robust framework for understanding how different agronomic practices can effectively recruit and optimize soil microbiomes that enhance ecosystem functions and climate change resilience. Organic farming practices such as the use of cover crops or carbon-rich soil amendments can increase soil carbon. For farmers in the Coastal Plains, these benefits can be highly variable across systems. The goal of this project is to measure how soil microbiomes respond to organic transition and to quantify microbial functions related to carbon dynamics and community resilience. We will study soils from a three-year organic transition field experiment at two locations in North Carolina testing how different amendments (compost, 50/50 compost and biochar, biochar) and application rates can accelerate soil health benefits. To accomplish this, we will perform amplicon and metagenome sequencing to determine how different organic treatments shape microbiome composition and genetic functional potential (Objective 1). Molecular data will leverage measurements of microbial biomass, respiration, carbon utilization, and enzyme functional potential (Objective 2). Finally, we will assess how organic amendments impact community resilience by measuring CO2 and N2O flux using soil incubations with simulated extreme precipitation events (Objective 3). We aim to build a predictive framework for using agronomic practices and organic amendments to optimize soil microbiomes and beneficial ecosystem functions that support climate change resilience.
Animal Health Component
75%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
75%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to measure how soil microbiomes respond to organic management transition and quantify microbial dynamics related to soil carbon transformations and greenhouse gas emissions. Our long-term aim is to build a predictive framework of how organic amendment regimes can optimize soil microbiomes and beneficial ecosystem functions that support climate change resilience. We will leverage microbiome sequencingwith community functional analyses focusing on microbial processes related to nutrient cycling and carbon substrate utilization. We will also assess microbial community resilience, decomposition, and greenhouse gas emissions with soil mesocosms and simulated extreme precipitation events.Objective 1. Soil microbiome taxonomic diversity and genetic functional potential. Measure how transition to organic production and organic amendment regimes shape soil microbiome taxonomic diversity, community composition, and genetic functional potential.Objective 2. Soil microbiome community function. Assess microbial indicators of soil health, including functional group biomass and short-term C mineralization, and quantify potential activity of enzymes related to plant matter decomposition and carbon substrate usage from soil communities across organic amendment regimes at two field locations and two time points.Objective 3.Soil microbiome resilience.Assess resilience of microbial communities across soil incubation experiments with simulated extreme climate evetns (i.e., repeated flooding). Quantify greenhosue gas emissions, crop residue decomposition, and community stability and recovery between organic amendemtn regimes.
Project Methods
Objective 1 methods: Soil samples will be collected for microbiome sequencing at Upper Coastal Plain Research Station and Cunningham Research Station in April 2024 at corn planting. This sample point will capture the legacy impacts of organic input regimes after 3 years. At both locations, we will collect soils from all experimental plots and extract DNA for molecular sequening.We will use amplicon community sequencing to assess microbiome diversity and community compositionusing primers targeting bacterial/archaeal 16S rRNA genes, fungal ITS genes, and microbial eukaryotic 18S rRNA genes.We will use shotgun metagenomic sequencing to measure the microbiome functional genetic potential across organic treatments. Objective 2 methods:Soils will be sampled throughout the 2024 grow season to measure soil microbial functions at important crop production and ecosystem stages such as early crop development and harvest/residue decomposition. We wll measure microbial functionsrelated to carbon transformations including potential activity of hydrolytic enzymes, carbon substrate utilization, and carbon mineralization.Objective 3 methods:Soils for laboratory incubations will be collected from treatment plots at corn harvest in October 2024. We will carry out soil incubations by simulating differnent conditions ranging in environmental stress (i.e., repeated flooding). We will incubate soils for at approximately 2-3 months and measure CO2 and N2O gas fluxes, relative decomposition rates (inferred from differences in total carbon and nitrogen before and after incubation), and microbiome community resilience (inferred from differences in community composition).The automated gas analyzer in co-PD Woodley's lab enables automaticand continuoussampling of greenhouse gas fluxes from soil incubations.